Harmony in Despair
by Renuarb
Summary: Jonathan finds himself in the world of the cursed Grimoire. Can he survive the trials within and return home? Not with his new company...
1. Chapter 1: Caught in the Cradle of Decay

And here we go, my first shot at writing a story. I do hope you find some enjoyment!

Disclaimer: I do not own Castlevania or any of the characters within. If I did, Harmony of Despair would be getting some more content.

* * *

What a mess.

The circumstances were definitely strange. It wasn't to say that roaming Castlevania one imperishable night, slaying vampires and the like wasn't already an unlikely scenario, but this was really pushing it.

Jonathan Morris sighed as he looked away from the cursed Grimoire floating ominously over a golden pedestal. In his company was a boy with short hair that framed his face. His dress was casual; he wore an average black turtleneck and a pair of faded jeans with boots. However, what was most noticeable was a mysterious pendant that dangled from his neck and a rather stylish tailcoat that was more or less similar to Jonathan's own. If he could remember right, the boy introduced himself as Soma Cruz.

The only problem was the fact that there were **three** Soma Cruzes standing before the teen. One Soma had fiery red hair and a red coat, again much similar to Jonathan's. He looked very anxious about something as he danced in place with a hand axe gripped tightly between his fingers.

Another Soma sported hair with a suggestively pink color to it, a tad bit longer than the other two of his character. He also wore a large pink coat with fur trimming upon his tiny frame, but the pendant was noticeably absent. This Soma was rather reserved, preferring to stand away from the group. Oddly enough, he would occasionally look from the floor to Jonathan and back again.

The last Soma had black hair and a rather large black coat that nearly fell down to the marble floor. His pants and boots were a charcoal color as well, giving this Soma a rather dark appearance. Black Soma also wore a small ring with a mysterious diamond embedded into the gold band. It was definitely no ordinary ring, Jonathan was sure of it.

With another sigh, the blonde teen turned back towards the book. The Grimoire once again showed Jonathan his gear.

"Vampire Killer…" The boy cringed as he read. No matter how many pages he turned after and before that, Offensive Gear only displayed the legendary whip as part of Jonathan's arsenal.

It was VERY strange. Nearly five minutes ago Jonathan was running through the halls of Castlevania armed with various swords, lances, whips, and subweapons. He had even managed to defeat the Whip's Memory in the form of Richter Belmont, by unconventional means at best. The last thing he remembered was jumping through another painting alongside his partner Charlotte Aulin, on their quest to stop the vampire Brauner.

"I hope she's alright…" The vampire hunter's thoughts briefly went towards his sixteen year old partner yet again. He wasn't too worried for her safety though. Charlotte had mastered several powerful spells in their short time inside Castlevania, and he would dare say that she could slay foes more efficiently then he could. Instead he was rather fearful for his own safety. He had just unlocked the true Vampire Killer, and Charlotte wasn't around to keep watch over him at the moment. If he wasn't careful…

"Ah, gotta stop thinking about it," shaking his head, Jonathan turned back towards his new company. "Well let's get going."

"About fucking time!" The Red Soma snapped towards the other red hunter as he started down the short hallway of what was supposedly still Castlevania. "I've been waiting forever!"

"Calm yourself, Soma. We shouldn't rush into danger unprepared now." The Black Soma coolly spoke as he finally opened his eyes and pushed off the wall from which he was leaning on. At his belt was a rather long sheath for what was probably some sort of katana blade.

"Whatever!" Red Soma called as he got near the exit. Suddenly several zombies emerged from the ground with a low groan. Grinning, the Red Soma swung his hand axe left and right, decapitating the zombies as they rose. "Gimmie your souls, dammit!"

Jonathan quickly withdrew the whip hooked to his belt and ran towards the action. "You're a newb, right?" The Black Soma questioned as Jonathan ran past, halting him to a stop. "Be careful out there. I trust you at least have some common sense."

"Hey don't worry about me. I'll be fine." Jonathan reassured his dark comrade with a grin. Black Soma merely nodded and took off running towards Red Soma with incredible speed. With a single leap, Black Soma flew over the small battle and landed safely in the next room. "Wow…. Hey, what about you? Are you okay?"

The Pink Soma jumped when Jonathan directed his attention towards him. "Ah-ah-um…um…. Yes. I'll be fine…."

"Well alright. If you need me, be sure and call me, okay? My name is Jonathan by the way." He waved as he again ran towards the growing group of zombies. Quickly grabbing one of the many knives hooked to his belt, Jonathan threw a blade with pinpoint accuracy into the eye socket of a zombie that had nearly snuck up on the preoccupied Soma, killing it easily.

Red Soma was blissfully unaware of his assist, however, as he was joyfully and blindly swinging his weapon around like mad. "Souls! Yes, that's three now for me!" The man laughed hysterically as blood and guts splattered all over him.

Jonathan considered himself rather fortunate that he was a warrior trained with the whip. Not only did it benefit him with the safest of ranges when it came to fighting, but one could avoid the ever annoying blood of the foes he'd fell splashing onto his clothes. He distinctly recalled Charlotte giving him a hard time whenever he briefly wielded a sword into combat and came back smelling like garbage.

As the number of zombies began to dwindle, Jonathan and Red Soma slowly met up in the thick of battle. With some impromptu teamwork, Jonathan whipped off the arm of a rather large zombie, giving Red Soma the opportunity to grab the dismembered limb and jam it into the mouth of a jawless zombie as it tried to swipe at him.

With the final three zombies risen, Jonathan quickly threw a knife between the eyes of each corpse, bringing them down before they could even act.

"Hey bitch, they were mine!" Red Soma complained as he briefly cleaned the gore from his axe off with his coat. "Fuck off!"

"Hey man, chill out. We should be working together."

"Fuck that! You just want more points don't you?" Red Soma frowned.

"Uhh… points?"

"And you," Red Soma pointed angrily towards his lighter colored counterpart. "Where were you?"

Pink Soma began to stammer. "I-I-I uhh.."

"Hey hold on there," Jonathan halted Red Soma for a minute, gaining his attention once more. "You yell at me for helping you fight, and at the other guy for standing back? That doesn't make any sense."

"Your mom doesn't make any sense!" Red Soma shouted as he ran off to enter the next room.

Jonathan sighed as he retrieved his subweapons from the many corpses surrounding him. "D-don't listen to him! You were…. were really great…" The Pink Soma squeaked out. "You look great…"

"What was that?" Jonathan raised a curious brow as he plucked another knife from rotten flesh. Had he heard him right?

Instantly the Pink Soma's cheeks flushed. "I-I meant that you looked great fighting! That other guy… he didn't know what he was doing…"

"Oh…. Thanks." Jonathan blinked as he snapped the last knife back onto his belt. His gaze went back to the fidgeting youth who was still standing near the Grimoire. "Are you okay?"

The young boy quickly nodded while averting his gaze to the floor.

"Well alright. Hey we should really keep up with the others, we'll be safer in a group." Jonathan said as he turned towards where Black and Red Soma disappeared to. "Try not to fall too far behind!"

Pink Soma's eyes curiously went back up after moments of silence. He let out a soft sigh after realizing he was left alone.

The next room was rather large. Stained glass windows depicting knights and princesses could be found, as well as countless candelabras and candles on supporting pillars. Platforms leading up to what appeared to be an exit in the ceiling caught the young vampire hunter's eye. Quickly locating a small levitating platform, Jonathan jumped on and then jumped again to a sturdy platform, likely a makeshift second floor for a room that was never finished. As he prepared to make another leap for a higher platform, the faint sound of string tightening came to his ears.

Jonathan quickly turned and threw two knives out. One knife hit and stopped a speeding arrow, while the other pierced the neck of an Amalaric Sniper.

"That was too close…" Jonathan breathed as he watched the fallen sniper of goth fall to the floor below. Not wanting to waste more time, Jonathan quickly leapt for the third platform, and made his way into the path above.

The long room seemed to go up quite a bit. Jonathan was greeted with what seemed to be a peeping eye, before it was sliced cleanly in two. To his immediate left was another short hallway full of rather vicious looking skeletons, and a plain old chest. Deciding that the risk wasn't worth the reward, Jonathan continued up.

Jonathan now emerged into a sort of pit filled with dead mermen. Rows of gears accompanied by overgrown vines made up this otherwise empty room. "A dead end…?"

"Well met, friend," came a somewhat familiar voice. Jonathan turned his gaze upward to find Black Soma standing on a ledge far beyond Jonathan's reach. "I see you're still alive."

"No problem." Jonathan replied while looking for a means of getting up. "How're you?"

"Just fine," The boy replied simply. Jonathan had to admit, the contrast between him and Red Soma was extreme. "I advise that you search for an alternate route."

"What about you? Are you coming with me?"

"Hmph…" With a flick of the wrist, Black Soma cleared the mermen blood off the red blade of his deadly katana, and easily slid it back into its scabbard. Without a word, the brooding man disappeared from the boy's sight.

"Yeah, see you later." Jonathan grumbled. With Charlotte's help he could easily make it up. Thinking back, the teamwork they had wasn't entirely perfect. Jonathan easily remembered the time he let Charlotte stand on his shoulders to give her the extra height to a goodie stashed out of their reach. Despite her stern warnings though, the boy took a daring peek up at the girl's underwear and was met with a rather painful heel stomp to the face.

"Guess I'll turn back." The boy decided and he headed back the way he came. The hallway just opposite of the merman room was again short, but another path could be seen. Also standing in the way was a blue axe knight with a large shield.

With a quick sprint, Jonathan rolled under the thrown axe and jumped high towards the knight's head. With a kick, the hunter bounced off the monster's helmet for extra height, and then proceeded to whip as strongly as he could down at the creature as he landed.

As the blue axe knight fell apart, Jonathan noticed that the thrown axe was making its way back towards him in a boomerang effect. With a confidant smirk, the teen easily grabbed the weapon with his free hand and stored it within one of his coat pockets. "Thanks for the axe, knight."

…

"Got to remember to tell that one to Charlotte." Jonathan noted as he stood up. Briefly, he noticed someone with pink hair retreat quickly behind a corner of the previous room. Not wanting to ask questions, Jonathan made his way further upward, as the pink figure slowly peeked out again to watch the man leave.

As he climbed higher, Jonathan suddenly stopped when he spotted Red Soma marching back and forth. "Hey."

"About god damn time!" The boy suddenly snapped as he glared at Jonathan. "Get over here and help me!"

"With…?" Jonathan asked as he glanced around the small room off to the side of his original path. There seemed to be no monsters or puzzles, only a lone blue chest.

"Stand right here next to the chest." Red Soma ordered as he backed away. As soon as Jonathan was standing in the desired spot, Red Soma nodded. "Good, now stay right there!"

"What am I-"

"Shut up! Now I'm gonna start running towards you, and when I reach you, open the chest as fast as you can, okay?"

"I don't-"

"GO!" Red Soma took off running as fast as he could towards Jonathan. As he reached the chest, both red coated teens gripped the blue lid and opened it quickly. "Fuck!"

Inside appeared to be a lone potion filled with sparkling blue water. The bottle was decorated with gold designs all around, with the figure of an angel acting as the cork.

"You fucking noob! Can't you do anything right?" The Red Soma shouted angrily as he kicked the chest and stomped off. "GOD! Why am I stuck with all the idiots?"

Watching the hot head leave, Jonathan turned back towards the strange potion and picked it up carefully. "What was he trying to do?" He briefly wondered as he examined it carefully. It certainly didn't look like any ordinary potion. With a shrug, he pocketed the small vial into the only inner pocket of his tailcoat and quickly ran after Red Soma.

The next room was larger than the rest. Three giant brass bells hung, each conveniently higher than the rest, allowing for makeshift platforms to a higher area. Across from him was another path, guarded by a bone pillar and an axe knight.

"Noob! Get this thing off me!" Red Soma yelled as he thrashed around. Jonathan could see that a sneaky little flea man had found his way onto the older boy's back, and wasn't intent on letting go. Red Soma spun around wildly with his axe out, trying desperately to get the critter off him. He only succeeded in unknowingly destroying the two bone pillars though.

"Hold still…" Jonathan muttered as he brandished his whip and struck out at his comrade in distress. However with Red Soma spinning around wildly and running around, the flea man was harder to hit then they normally are. Jonathan winced as he realized some of his strikes were actually landing on the Soma. "Ooh…"

"You aren't helping!" Red Soma cried before he took a second whip smack to the face. He quickly retreated into the adjacent room with the axe knight, bowling him over as he ran.

Jonathan quickly caught up, finishing off the enemy as he passed and pocketing himself another subweapon. He reached out in a vain attempt to stop Red Soma from falling into the pool ahead. He didn't make it, of course, and watched the boy trip over himself into the water.

After nearly a minute of watching from dry land, Jonathan finally noticed the tiny corpse of a flea man surface. Moments later, Red Soma came up for air. "Thanks for the fucking help!"

"You're welcome." Jonathan replied as he took in his new surroundings. By his side was a very promising looking switch that was just begging to be thrown. He didn't want to admit it publicly, but Jonathan loved to push buttons and pull levers. It was a strange habit.

"Don't you dare pull that, we don't know what it does!" Red Soma warned as he swam for land. Jonathan smiled happily as he ignored the boy's warning and pulled the switch, a noticeable click of the gears echoing through the small room.

Suddenly, the strange sound of what could be described as a toilet flushing came to the boys' ears. The water in the room then began to swirl around and around, draining away into the room below.

"You !" Red Soma yelled as he was swept around in the whirlpool and dumped into a lower room.

Jonathan nodded calmly, strangely satisfied with what he just witnessed. "Something good always happens I when move switches."

Now with the room empty and drained, Jonathan dropped down to the wet floor and peered into the hole he had just made. Below he saw an angry Red Soma swimming away in what appeared to be the mermen room from before.

Making sure his gear was properly secured onto his belt, Jonathan dove into the hole and back into the merman room. As he surfaced from the newly formed pool, he noticed that Pink Soma was standing near the entrance of the room, poking the water gently with his finger. "Hey!"

The pink one timidly looked up in response to Jonathan's call. "Hi…"

"Jump in, the waters great!"

"Ahh?" Pink Soma's ever present blush deepened considerably at the offer. "N-no! I'm okay!"

"Suit yourself," Jonathan said as he swam towards the path he saw Black Soma at earlier. After pulling himself out and brushing a lock of wet hair from his face, he turned to find Pink Soma was still on the other side of the room, staring at him. "Are you coming?"

"Umm….. I-I can't…. swim." The boy replied in a barely audible voice.

"What?"

"I can't swim," He answered again, louder this time. "I'm sorry."

"Ah, no problem. I'll just head back over and we'll find another-"

"No!" Pink Soma cut him off quickly. "No no no, you don't have to do that… for me…"

"Are you sure?" Jonathan asked as he readied to dive back into the water, just in case. The shy boy silently nodded his head yes. "Well….. see ya."

Pink Soma watched the blonde run off, then sighed softly as he turned his gaze to the sad reflection in the pool. "Bye…"

* * *

The rest of the journey was rather uneventful for Jonathan. Nothing but short hallways with the occasional spinning spike trap and pathways that constantly lead him up. Eventually, he came to a lowered drawbridge within the castle walls, which actually covered a long drop back into the mermen room far below. After climbing even higher, the boy came across two paths. The left path lead to a small room, with yet even more platforms that lead up. The right path lead to a long hallway. Jonathan chose to take the hallway path, the better alternative to more climbing.

"Whoa…" The hunter's eyes widened. Jonathan was met with the sight of two minotaur heads impaled through each others' horns and what he could guess was their bodies sliced into ribbons and thrown about the room. "Hardcore. Did that Soma guy do this?"

His thoughts on the matter would have to wait, however, as his eyes spotted one of the minotaur's halberd weapons lying on the floor in perfect condition. However, as Jonathan reached out to grab it, he was pushed down by a red figure as it dashed by and grabbed the weapon for himself. "Mine!"

"What're you doing? I saw it first!" Jonathan shouted as he rose back to his feet. He was really getting irritated with the kid now.

"Noob, you don't deserve to use this." Red Soma responded with a smirk. He took one last look at his hand axe before tossing it aside, gripping his new halberd with both hands. Red Soma twirled it around a couple times to mock the unfortunate hunter, when suddenly a small beam of light shot into the room. "What the fuck is that?"

Although he was tempted to look, something told Jonathan that he should back away to a safe distance. Red Soma went up and casually poked the small beam, just as it grew in size. Jonathan watched as Red Soma was then engulfed in a terrifying beam, burning the greedy hunter to a crisp.

As the beam slowly faded, Jonathan carefully walked around the toasted Soma, who was twitching on the floor. "Karma."

"Screw you," he coughed out.

Hurrying ahead, Jonathan found a rather large pendulum swinging back and forth slowly. With proper timing, he easily climbed onto the pendulum and set his sights on the next platform leading to a small tower.

Platforms consisting of large rotating gears filled the small room, and the walls were lined with rows of razor sharp spikes. Treading carefully, Jonathan climbed his way up the tower. Without the presence of medusa heads, he had to admit that it was actually easier than he thought to climb up. It was nothing like the clock tower, a place he'd dread to ever visit again.

The next room had him sighing though. Brandishing the whip once more, Jonathan set out to combat the small army of skeletons that greeted him. It didn't take much effort to take down the foes though. A single whip was all it took for the skeletons to fall apart. Jonathan even got fancy and kicked a thrown bone right back at its owner, shattering the skull to dust.

"Bone Cold Justice," Came a voice from behind. Jonathan turned to see that Red Soma had caught up to him. "What's up?"

"Hey."

…..

"Err uhh….. so I see you're still alive." Jonathan stated the obvious, observing how Red Soma was miraculously still walking around.

"You kidding? It's gonna take a lot more than some fucking laser beam to keep me down."

"Right. Strange how that blast didn't even burn a hole through the walls." Jonathan looked around the large room he was in. Somehow that giant laser didn't even leave a scratch on any part of the castle.

"Well whatever, who cares? Let's keep going already, I want some more fucking treasure!"

"Okay!"

…

Both boys then slowly looked up at the two small pendulums swinging madly above them. They could spot a lone platform at the top of the room, leading further through the castle.

"Ladies first," Red Soma gestured as he took a step back. "Go on!"

"Right." Jonathan studied the first pendulum carefully, waiting for the right moment to jump. The first few attempts however resulted in failure. Jonathan would either jump too late and miss entirely, or he would jump too early and have the brass smack against his face as it passed.

"You suck!" Red Soma laughed, enjoying the younger vampire hunter's failure. After a couple more tries, Jonathan was finally able to gain stable footing onto the first pendulum. "About fucking time!"

"You could've helped, you know." Jonathan grumbled as he gripped the chain tightly, making room for Red Soma. The boy surprisingly had less trouble with his jumps, and actually managed to be standing next to Jonathan on his second try.

"Well? Not bad, huh?" Red Soma grinned.

"_Where have I heard that before….?"_

The two boys in red then turned their attention to the second pendulum. This one would be more difficult to land on, especially now that they themselves were being swung back and forth. "Go."

"Again?" Jonathan shot his companion a questioning glare. "What about you?"

"Bitch, you know I can do it."

"Yeah well… how about you help me up after you make it? That way you don't have to wait so long for me." The hunter offered. Red Soma thought about the offer carefully, then decided he'd go with it, just this once.

The teens waited for five more minutes before Red Soma made his move. Unfortunately, jumping from a swinging platform didn't exactly give him the height he wanted. Red Soma screamed as the second pendulum slammed into him with full force, sending him flying through a conveniently opened window.

"What a way to go…" Jonathan gulped. It was his turn now. He wasn't exactly ready to end his life by being flung out the window. At times like this, he would try to remember the stories of his father's adventures.

"_Hey Eric, how skilled was my father with the whip?" Jonathan curiously asked while his partner harassed the merchant priest in the next room for supplies._

"_Your father's skill with the Vampire Killer rivaled those of the Belmont Clan," Eric answered as he thought back to their adventures across Europe. "He was even able use the whip as a tool to swing across large gaps."_

"_Wow," Jonathan's eyes widened at the response. "He could swing with a whip… uh, hey Eric? What could you do?"_

"_I could jump really high." The ghost answered proudly._

"…_That's it?"_

"_Yes." Eric confirmed with a nod._

"_That's….. kind've lame." Jonathan loudly admitted._

_Eric was less than amused with his reaction. "Why haven't you brought me any cakes yet?"_

"It's worth a shot," Jonathan decided as he gripped the Vampire Killer tightly in his hand and waited for the opportune moment. With a quick snap of the wrists, the whip shot out and wrapped itself around the chain of the second pendulum. Jonathan tightly held on with both hands as the whip pulled him off the first pendulum.

Slowly climbing up, Jonathan finally found himself a seat on the higher platform. He quickly untied the end of the whip and curled it back to its resting place at his side. With the exit just ahead, he made one final leap from the second pendulum and landed rather roughly on his behind.

* * *

The path ahead was rather straightforward now. After opening a red chest and pocketing a rather healthy amount of gold, he advanced down the hall to what appeared to be a green metal door, blocking the way. "Dead end?"

Suddenly the whirring sound of an elevator grew louder and louder until it stopped with a ding, right on the other side of the green door. The door then opened to reveal a rather surprised pink haired boy. "Ah!"

"Hey there," Jonathan greeted with a warm smile. "It's good to see you again."

"It-it-it is?" Pink Soma couldn't believe his ears.

"Yeah! I'm glad you're alright, you know?"

"You…. you are….?" The boy hid his maddening blush in the fur of his coat. "I'm happy to see you again too," Pink Soma then dug into his coat pocket to pull out a pair of throwing knives. "Here."

"Eh? What's this?" Jonathan wondered as he took the gift. They looked similar to the kind strapped to his belt. "Oh, from before!"

"I found them next to that dead angel thing. I meant to give it to you earlier, but I forgot..." Pink Soma explained timidly. After a brief silence, he continued. "Are you hurt? I could give you some of my potions if you are..."

"Hey, don't worry about me," Jonathan reassured the boy with a pat to the shoulder. "Charlotte and I have been through worse stuff than this. I'm fine."

Pink Soma frowned slightly as he heard the name of the girl. _"Charlotte?"_

It was then that the sound of a fight caught Jonathan's attention. Rushing over from their spot at the elevator, he found a drop into a large room of what could be best described as the top of a large tower.

Within he saw a giant, frightful monster. Its skin looked to be decayed and rotten, with its ribcage clearly visible. The face had skin assumedly melted over the eye sockets and a row of large teeth designed for mashing its food into mush. The beast stomped around on two mammoth legs, the only limbs that appeared to be remaining on the body. The legs were interestingly cuffed together via golden shackles at the ankles.

The monster known as Gergoth was stomping around blindly, dripping a deep crimson shade of blood all over the floor as it chased a figure dressed in black. "Hey, that's the other Soma!"

Pink Soma finally caught up to see what was going on, and promptly hid behind Jonathan. "Scary..."

"He needs my help. Stay here, okay?" Jonathan ordered as he took a rather great fall into the room. No turning back now. Pink Soma continued to watch helplessly from above.

Black Soma noticed Jonathan from the corner of his eye and smirked as he leapt over Gergoth's tackle attempt. "You impress me."

"Why's that?" Jonathan asked while getting easy shots in on the fallen creature.

"You're still alive," Black Soma pulled a silver gun from his coat and began firing at the beast's face. "This is a good sign..."

Gergoth finally rose to its feet again and turned towards Jonathan now. With a loud roar, the creature began his slow advancement. Jonathan pulled every knife he had from his belt and began throwing them, aiming for the gap between the exposed ribcage. The beast roared in pain as it stomped closer to the young hunter now. Jonathan quickly grabbed the Vampire Killer and began whipping up at the face of the beast as it drew ever closer. Saliva dripped from the exposed gums as Gergoth chomped down blindly at the attacker.

_"Crap, what've I gotten myself into?" _Jonathan wondered as he barely avoided another fatal bite from the monster. _"Really wishing you were here now, Char."_

With a simple snap of the fingers, Black Soma summoned an army of Amalaric Snipers behind them. The dozen or so angelic beings then took flight and aim. A shower of arrows descended upon the distracted Gergoth, allowing Jonathan to throw one of his axes up into the exposed intestines before running to safety.

"Is that some kind of spell?" Jonathan huffed out as he caught his breath near Black Soma.

The boy ignored his question as he dismissed his angels with a wave of the hand. "Prepare yourself accordingly. He's not done yet."

Gergoth slowly turned to face the two hunters. The rusted chain from his shackles finally broke to pieces, allowing the creature to run.

"Move!" The black one shouted as he and Jonathan separated just in time to avoid Gergoth's head. The beast collided into the wall with full force, causing the tower to shake. "This place is going to fall apart..."

"What?" Jonathan noticed various cracks forming in the floor. "That's... not good, is it?"

Gergoth recovered from its headbutt and turned towards Jonathan once more. With another loud roar, the creature leapt high into the air, nearly hitting the ceiling of the tower. Jonathan quickly rolled out from under the massive weight brought down onto the floor.

"Brace yourself!" Black Soma shouted as the floor began to crumble and fall apart beneath their feet. Pink Soma watched in shock as the two hunters fell into the dark abyss below, along with the monster Gergoth. He quickly turned back towards the elevator.

Red Soma had finally found his way back into the castle after being thrown out through the window like a doll. The landing wasn't the softest he could ask for, and now his back ached like there was no tomorrow.

"Fuuuuck..." The boy groaned as he stepped into a large empty room. He looked around quickly for any sort of treasure chest to open but found none. Instead he heard the strange sound of crashing and screaming echoing from above. "The fuck?"

Suddenly Gergoth crashed through the ceiling, face planting deep into the concrete blocks below. Red Soma stepped back in shock, only to have Jonathan land on top of him, painfully pinning him to the floor.

Jonathan quickly got up while rubbing his bottom, turning to the screaming red child. "Ahh... sorry? Are you alright?"

Black Soma landed on his feet next to the two. "Concern yourself with our foe! Strike him while we have the chance!"

With a nod, Jonathan and Black Soma rushed forward with their weapons in hand. Jonathan whipped like mad at Gergoth's body, while Black Soma sliced away at the creature's legs with his red katana.

Gergoth finally managed to pull it's head out of the ground, crushing the rocks caught in its mouth before turning to face the two. Suddenly the skin on its face peeled back slowly to reveal a bloodied face and black beady little eyes. Its jaw dropped open wide as light began to form within the mouth.

"Get down!" The Soma ordered as he dropped to the floor. Jonathan quickly did the same just in time to have a giant beam of energy pass over his head. Gergoth made an entire sweep of the room with his blast before it finally faded. Seizing this opportunity, Black Soma jumped to his feet and made a mad dash for Gergoth. With a great leap, he landed onto the beast's head and drove his katana deeply into one of the eyes before the thick layer of dead skin could cover it back up. Gergoth roared in considerable pain as it staggered and fell onto its side, firing another beam from its mouth. "Quickly, the heart!"

Jonathan quickly sprang to his feet and rushed towards Gergoth's ribs. Channeling the power of the unlocked Vampire Killer, the whip struck at the exposed heart with chains alit with holy flames.

The heart caught fire. Gergoth's beam finally ended as it let out one final roar before it finally succumbed to death.

Black Soma yanked his red katana from the gooey exposed muscle of the now deceased Gergoth's head, and casually pulled out some cloth to clean it. "Impressive work."

"Yeah, thanks," Jonathan said as he curled the whip back up and hooked it back to his belt. As he looked over at his companion, he swore he saw a strange glimmer to the ring on his right hand. "Although I do kind've feel bad about it."

"Gergoth was originally a gentle creature," Black Soma spoke as he slid his weapon back into its resting spot. "Dark magic and torture eventually drove it mad, however. Yet another victim to Castlevania."

"Really? Wait, do you know what's going on here? Where we are?" Jonathan asked, hopeful that the boy could give him some answers. Just then, the door to the room opened, revealing a visibly concerned Pink Soma. "Hey there."

"Are you guys alright?" Pink Soma cried as he came running to the group with several blue potions in his arms. "Here, drink some of these! They'll make you feel better!"

"Unnecessary, we weren't harmed," Black Soma answered for the two. He then pointed Pink Soma in the direction of an unconscious Red Soma. "Although I believe he requires your attention."

"Hey, you didn't answer my question," Jonathan pressed again. "Where are we? I need to get home."

Again the Black Soma ignored him. Turning his back to the group, he replied differently. "Take your prize and be done with it already."

Suddenly Jonathan noticed a large sparkling gold chest be his side. "What the? When did this get here?"

"Tr-trea...sure...?" Red Soma groaned as he came to, "Open... you noob... ugh." The boy managed before passing out again, throwing Pink Soma into another panic.

Jonathan gripped the top tightly and threw open the chest, being nearly blinded by the golden light within. As the light faded, he noticed a rather peculiar green gem resting inside. As he held it firmly in his hands, the name of the object seemed to pop into his head instantly. "Staurolite...?"

It was then that the world around him began to fade away. Jonathan quickly noticed that the three Somas were gone.

"Where are you guys?" He called out desperately as his surroundings turned dark. "What's... what's going on?" Was the last thing the hunter managed to shout before everything went black.

* * *

End of Chapter 1. Did you enjoy it? Did you hate it? Do you have a guess at who will appear next? Eitherway, now comes the bonus Harmony of Despair trivia, where I post 3 questions about the game and/or the fic. Answering them is optional, but correct answers will receive points. The reviewer(s) with the most points after an undisclosed number of chapters may get a treat? Who knows.

**Question 1**: Gergoth is the boss of Chapter 1. What game(s) can you also find him?

**Question 2:** Jonathan used a special attack to finish Gergoth. Can this be done in HD with this particular weapon?

**Question 3:** What is Black Soma's sword called and where is it obtained? (Two possible answers for this one)

There you have it. Remember to add your answers as apart of your review. Also big thank you to a personal friend of mine who helped me out with this rocky start of a chapter. Love ya lots!


	2. Chapter 2: The Lord of Unseen Strings

Hello again readers. Thank you all for the generally positive reviews on my first attempt at fanficiton. I honestly only expect maybe... two reviews at the most. I hope to continue to meet or exceed your expectations with this chapter. Before we begin, I would like to point out that the layout described in this chapter doesn't follow HD's Chapter 2 to a point. I wanted to mix things up a bit.

Castlevania and all of its characters are owned by Konami. If I owned it, I'd be making DLC, not crappy chapters.

* * *

**Chapter 2: The Lord of Unseen Strings**

"_It's time to wake up, Jonathan~" Sang an angelic voice from below._

_Jonathan's eyes opened slowly to a familiar ceiling he hadn't seen in the longest time. He sat up to sleepily take in his surroundings. "Where am I?"_

_Jonathan found himself inside his own room. Everything was as he remembered it before he left the States to pursue rumors of Castlevania appearing somewhere in Europe. The various posters of his favorite rock bands still clung to the wall, and his own guitar was still collecting dust in the corner. On the bed stand was a picture of his family and a separate photo of just his father placed face down. His old clothes worn from days ago were still thrown about the room in a messy fashion._

_He threw off the covers of his bed and stood up, still mysteriously dressed in his hunting attire. Just then a woman with short blonde hair opened the door. She wore a loose red blouse and a dress skirt that ended just past her knees, all of which were hidden behind a clean white apron. "Oh, you're finally up~"_

_"M-Mom?" Jonathan spoke in disbelief. "What're you doing here?"_

_"It's time to get ready for schoooool~" His mother sang as she turned and made her way back to the kitchen, humming down the halls as she went._

_"What... school? Aw hell, I'm gonna be late!" Jonathan quickly scrambled to dig his schoolbag out from the closet and ran out of the room. He stopped by the kitchen to eat a quick breakfast when it finally dawned on him. "Wait a minute... it's summer. I already graduated!"_

_Jonathan's mother was near the stove, still humming with her back turned. "Honey you better eat fast or you'll be late~ You don't want your cute little friend to be mad at you again~"_

_"Mom I'm not in school anymore, I told you this. I had to leave for awhile to head for Europe." Jonathan explained as he slowly took a seat at the kitchen table. His mother seemingly ignored him and kept on humming. "Uhh... mom?"_

_"You'll be late for school, honey. Your lunch is on the table." She responded without singing now._

_Jonathan looked over and noticed that a brown paper bag was now sitting in front of him on the table. He slowly reached out to the bag, suddenly getting an uneasy feeling about it. Opening it up and taking a look inside, Jonathan gasped at the contents of his 'lunch.'_

_Inside the brown paper bag were two dolls that looked exactly like Charlotte and his late father, John Morris. The two dolls seemed to be breathing almost, as their heads twitched repeatedly. Their clothes were stained with blood and torn in some areas. The arms and legs looked splintered and had loose doll joints._

_At once both dolls looked up at the opening of the bag and desperately reached their little arms up at Jonathan. "What the hell?"_

_Just then Jonathan's mouth was covered shut and he was grabbed by the hand of his mother. As he looked up in shock, he saw that her face was nothing but decaying wood with a large opening for the mouth, decorated with rows of razor sharp teeth. The eyes glowed red as the grip around Jonathan's mouth tightened. __**"YOU TOO SHALL BE MY PUPPET!"**_

Jonathan awoke screaming at the top of his lungs. He looked around in a panic for his 'mother' but was met with two stares: One of which belonging to a worried Pink Soma and the other to an annoyed Black Soma. "W-Where am I?" The hunter asked as he jumped to his feet and noticed his new surroundings.

Jonathan was now inside what seemed to be a rather large tent, filled with three sleeping bags and a lantern to keep the inside alit. Pink Soma was sitting near him and was nestled nicely in his own pink sleeping bag. "Umm are you okay, Jonathan?"

"I... uh," Jonathan hesitated and shook his head to rid himself of the lasting images of his nightmare. "I'm fine. Yeah, I'm alright now."

"You stupid ass..." The Red Soma groaned as he sat up in his red colored sleeping bag. "Keep your fucking mouth shut, I was at the best part of the dream..."

"Sorry," Jonathan apologized towards Red Soma. The older boy however was passed out once again in the blink of an eye. Jonathan then turned his attention towards the Black Soma that was sitting near the zipped up entrance of the tent. "What happened?"

"You blacked out." He answered simply.

"Ah... what happened to Castlevania? Where are we now?" Jonathan then shivered, finally realizing his coat was taken off and put into the corner of the tent. "Why's it so cold?"

Black Soma sighed and unzipped an exit from the tent. "Come with me. We need to talk."

Jonathan nodded and grabbed his whip. He made sure to take his red coat and put it back on before leaving the younger two Somas inside.

"Wow it's cold!" Jonathan found himself deep in some snow covered woods. The remains of their campfire setup was between their tent and another mysterious tent. "Where are we?"

"The Hunters Camp," Black Soma started as he went to lean against a large tree. "Relax, there are no threats out here."

"What happened to the castle? And that giant foreskin monster?"

"That wasn't Dracula's castle. It was the Condemned Tower."

"Condemned Tower...?" Jonathan repeated in question.

Black Soma nodded. "We had to find and slay Gergoth, remember?"

Jonathan sighed and stomped through the light snow. "No, I don't. I don't know where I am or how I even got here."

Black Soma studied the teen carefully_. "So you're different...? From the outside?" _Jonathan noticed he was being eyed strangely and coughed slightly to gain Black Soma's attention. "You had a strange dream, did you not?"

Jonathan nodded, "Yeah, it was a damn nightmare. I mean I've had my share of bad dreams in the past, but this one felt real." The hunter recalled. Normally his bad dreams would include his father or the Belmont lineage.

"The Puppet Master has invaded your dreams," Black Soma sighed. "I suppose that's our next destination then."

"The... Puppet Master?" The younger hunter questioned. Another new foe awaited him.

"Another one of Dracula's fiends. He's the king of cursed puppets and a master of manipulating dimensions. You've been marked."

"Marked?" Jonathan gulped. "That's not good, is it?"

Black Soma shook his head. "The Puppet Master likes to invade the dreams of his next victims. From then on the nightmare will become continually worse... until you eventually lose your mind. When that happens, your body becomes another one of his puppets."

Jonathan felt himself dizzy and leaned against another cold tree. "No way..."

"That is why we must now slay the Puppet Master," Black Soma pointed off east deep into the forest. "He resides further within."

"Alright, let's go."

Black Soma stopped the hunter before he could even move. "Out of the question. We'll depart come morning... when the others are awake."

Jonathan sighed and turned to stare towards the direction the dark man had pointed moments ago. "But..."

"No buts. Go back and get your rest. We'll be busy tomorrow."

Jonathan took one look over at the tents and quickly shook his head. "I... I don't think I'll be getting much sleep tonight."

"Very well," Black Soma took one look himself at the camp, then decided now was the time. "Tell me... what do you plan to do?"

"What? To kill that Puppet Master guy of course."

"No," The man's eye slightly twitched. "I meant after that. Your goal of this entire adventure."

"My goal? Well..." If Jonathan had to guess, it would be the same as last time. He may be in a new world, but the evil was just the same. "To destroy Dracula and Castlevania."

"Anything else?" The man pressed.

"Well... to get home," he sighed and slumped down against the tree now. "And to find Charlotte."

Black Soma shut his eyes and nodded, cracking a small smile as he did. _"I hope you find her soon..."_

* * *

The four hunters approached what appeared to be a small mansion deep within the forest. The dead trees formed an unusual circle around the house, and the grounds around it had been swept clean of snow.

"We're here," Black Soma announced. "Within lies our next target."

"Uhh... Soma? I've been meaning to ask," Jonathan spoke up as he turned Black Soma's attention back to him. "Who is that guy?"

Jonathan pointed to a bald man that had been trailing the group from a safe distance for a while now. He wore a blue army jacket over a black tank top and faded blue pants with black combat boots. He had a single dog tag hanging around his neck and the American flag displayed on his jacket's shoulder.

"That's Hammer," Black Soma motioned for the group to follow him back to the bald man. "Didn't you wonder who was in the other tent?"

Jonathan seemed to recall seeing a second tent at the camp, despite everyone staying in a single one. "Oh... can he fight?"

"That's not his role," The eldest Soma pointed at the man who began setting up his tent again with lightening quick speed. "Go."

Jonathan and the other two Somas looked at each other and shrugged before heading over. As they approached the tent, Hammer's expression change considerably from calm to anger. "Atten-tion!"

The three boys stopped and looked at each other curiously again. Red Soma dared to speak out. "What?"

Hammer growled and stomped his foot. "I said attention!"

Jonathan and Pink Soma caught on quickly and stood up straight with their arms down at the sides. Red Soma still stood casually with his hands in his pockets. "The fuck you talking bout?"

Hammer then moved up and leaned over at the red boy, practically putting his face up to his. "YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH ME, BOY?"

"I-"

"WHAT?" The man yelled over Red Soma.

"Wh-"

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Hammer continued to shout. Red Soma began to take a step back as he was overpowered easily. "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?"

"Bathroom!" Red Soma shouted as he turned heel and ran back towards Black Soma.

Hammer smirked and turned back to the two remaining hunters. "Name and rank, soldiers!"

"Jonathan Morris, vampire hunter, sir!" The boy replied. World War II was underway back in his time, and he knew a little about how the army worked and how to respond properly. He figured it would do him some good incase he ever got drafted into the war.

Pink Soma began shaking uncontrollably in fear. "S-S-S-S-Sooo-Sooo-So-Soooommmm-"

Hammer took one curious look at the frightened boy and decided to cut him a break, turning his attention to the newcomer. "And what brings you here today?"

"I wanted to introduce myself, sir!"

Hammer laughed and waved at the young hunter. "Enough formalities, boy. You're a good kid."

Jonathan let out a sigh. "So what brings you out here? I heard you don't fight."

Hammer opened his tent and motioned the boy inside. Jonathan stepped inside to find that Hammer's tent was larger on the inside than it appeared on the outside. There were many boxes and crates that left little room for walking. It was obvious that Hammer wasn't using this tent to sleep. "Tell me if you find something you like."

The boy turned to the giant man. "Huh?"

"This is a shop, kid. I provide supplies to the hunters before they go off and fight." Hammer said as he ripped the lid off one of the nearby boxes with his bare hands. "You find something you like, show it to me."

"Cool." Jonathan smiled as he made his way deeper into the tent. He was intent on finding himself a sword of some sort to use in place of the whip.

"It'll cost you though," Hammer called from the entrance. "Don't go thinking this stuff is free now!"

Jonathan stopped and checked his pockets for what gold he had on hand. Aside from what he found within the Condemned Tower, he was nearly broke. He cursed silently to himself, still a bit angry that Charlotte decided she'd hold whatever money they had found within Castlevania.

Defeated, the boy made his way out of the maze of supplies and back to Hammer. "Sorry, guess I won't be buying anything for now."

Hammer thought for a minute and motioned for the boy to stay as he headed back into the maze. Moments later he emerged with a belt in his hands. "Take this. On the house."

Jonathan caught the belt as it was thrown at him and noticed the dozen grenades hooked to it. "This?"

"I can tell you're a good kid. Just don't tell anyone else, otherwise I'd have to give everyone freebies."

Jonathan nodded and quickly added the belt to his growing collection. He had to admit it was a bit daunting to wear so many belts at once, each with a different sub weapon attached to it. "Thanks. I'll pay you back when I can."

Hammer waved the boy as he made his exit. "Don't go and get yourself blown up now!"

Back outside, Jonathan and the still frightened Pink Soma met up with the Black and Red Soma. "Are we ready?"

The two nodded, and the Black Soma in turned lead the group towards the large mansion.

* * *

Two maids were hard at work cleaning one of the many rooms of the mansion. One maid was dusting a drawer full of various valuable china, while the other maid was cleaning the rug with her trusty vacuum cleaner.

"Persephone, are you almost done yet?" The first maid asked as she finished dusting and moved to fix a crooked painting hanging from the wall. She looked over to the other maid that was busy with the vacuum. "Persephone?"

The other maid couldn't hear her over the loud hum of her cleaner. As she cleaned closer to where her partner was, she looked up without shutting the thing off. "What?"

"I said are you done yet?" The first maid asked again.

"What?"

"I said are you done yet?" She repeated louder now.

"What?" The second Persephone tilted her head, trying to hear the first.

The first Persephone took in a deep breath to shout. "I said-"

"Eat it bitch!" Came an interrupting voice as a fist collided into Persephone 1's face and knocked her down. Persephone 2 gasped and looked over to see Red Soma smiling smugly, but wasn't able to act in time before being decapitated by the muramasa. "Someone turn that stupid thing off!"

Jonathan kicked the skull shaped vacuum until the loud humming stopped. He then watched as Red Soma finished off the first Persephone by bringing his halberd down onto her unconscious figure.

Pink Soma, who had been watching from the front door, rejoined the group while sadly looking down at the corpses of the two girls. "Did we really have to kill them?"

"Show no mercy," Black Soma responded in a cruel tone. "It's either them or us."

The group then took notice of their surroundings. The foyer of the mansion had numerous branching paths: A door on the left and right of the large room, and a set of double doors down the center between two large winding staircases that lead to a second floor with more doors.

"So which way do we go?" Jonathan questioned the leader of the group.

Black Soma thought about the possibilities. As if on cue, the cursed Grimoire appeared near the man, floating mysteriously over the golden pedestal like it always did. It was then that the man confirmed their next action. "We split up into groups of two. Jonathan and Red Soma will explore downstairs while Pink Soma and I will check upstairs."

The two red coated boys groaned, both not liking the teams. Pink Soma sighed and joined Black Soma's side. "Good luck, Jonathan..."

The teen waved as he and Red Soma went through the nearest door. The Pink Soma watched until he was gone, then sadly turned to find that Black Soma was already heading upstairs.

"Umm... go slow, okay?" He asked as he caught up.

Black Soma ignored his wishes and went through a door leading to the right wing of the mansion. Pink Soma hurried after him, staying behind as the older man easily dispatched the skeletons and axe armors that guarded the hallway. It was when he finally got to the door at the end of the hall that he turned. "Do you not have a weapon?"

Pink Soma twiddled his thumbs. "No..."

Black Soma was clearly annoyed with the response. He turned to open the door and quickly stepped into the next room. "Useless..."

Pink Soma was ready to grip the door knob and follow behind until a voice from behind startled him. "Welcome."

He turned to see a young maid dressed in blue and white behind him. She politely curtsied and smiled as he looked at her. "Umm... hello there." Pink Soma slowly bowed in return, pleased that he had found someone nice.

Persephone's smile quickly faded as she took the opening to knee the bowing child hard in the face. Pink Soma reeled back in pain as the maid assumed a combative stance, following the boy as he pushed through the doors into the next room.

The next room was a large one, combining both the second and first floor together. The wallpaper was blue on the bottom that faded into purple as it went up towards the second floor area, decorated with yellow stars. The ground below had various pool tables, foosball tables, and pong tables. A bar counter was set-up along one of the walls with various stools lining it. A giant television set hung near it on the wall, and on the opposite corner of it all was an iron maiden of all things.

"Soma? Where are you?" Pink Soma desperately called as he scanned the room. Aside from the lone skeleton bartender that was cleaning glasses, the room was strangely empty. Persephone was in hot pursuit of the young boy, sending a vicious reverse round house kick his way with her dangerously sharp heels. The boy tripped in his efforts to evade the kick and ended up tumbling all the way down stairs. His head smacked into the edge of one of the pool tables at the bottom, bringing tears to his eyes. "Ouch..."

Persephone casually made her way down the stairs and resumed her battle stance once more. The skeleton bartender took one look at what was unfolding, then went back to cleaning his mugs.

Pink Soma jumped to his feet, only to be met with a swift punch to the nose. He quickly ran around the pool table, putting it between him and the aggressive maid. "Leave me alone!" the boy shouted as he began throwing the billiards at the girl.

Persephone shielded her face with her hands as she was pelted. The eight ball hit her stomach, causing her to double over and take the two ball shot to her exposed forehead. The girl cried out in pain as the throbbing headache made the large room spin. Pink Soma quickly ran up to push her down, and tried to make his escape to the first floor door, only to have the furious maid grab his ankle and trip him down with her.

Pink Soma crawled away in a panic while Persephone got to her feet and blindly reached out onto the pool table, still nearly blinded from the blunt force to her head she received. She grabbed onto a pool cue and smashed the tip of it off on the table, giving it a dangerously sharp end. "Trash!"

Pink Soma was barely avoiding the stabs from the sharp pool cue as he crawled away from the frenzied maid. He made his way over to the bar counter and finally got to his feet, tossing out the bar stools to halt the maid's advance as he climbed over the counter. Persephone kicked the seats aside with a roar. Pink Soma quickly began grabbing and throwing the various glass beer mugs out at the girl, wincing as some broke on contact with her body.

Persephone screamed in rage as she threw the pool cue forward, now blinded from both the dizziness and the loss of blood from having glass shards imbedded on her face. The aim of the weapon was off however, impaling the poor innocent skeleton bartender through his skull.

Pink Soma scrambled over the counter again, just avoiding the maid's grasp as he ran towards the far corner of the room where the iron maiden was. Next to the torture device he spotted a pile of stuffed animals. Desperate for a weapon, Pink Soma grabbed a yellow teddy bear that rested atop the pile. It had a menacing face featured on its round head, with the left ear apparently bitten off. The body had the softest fur known to man, with some stitches along the left arm and leg, likely a quick repair job by the owner. Despite its terrifying looks, the bear was pretty heavy for the boy to even hold.

With Persephone drawing closer, Pink Soma took a chance and swung his new weapon at the head of the maid. Although it was merely harmless, the demonic housekeeper was too busy swatting the troublesome stuffed animal away from her face to notice where she was stepping. The heel on one of her shoes broke, causing the poor girl to tumble into the waiting iron maiden, trapping her inside and impaling her with many spikes.

Pink Soma shrank back at the maid's dying scream of agony, gripping the yellow bear tightly to his chest. "Sorry..."

"What was that sound?"

"It came from in here."

Two more voices came from the nearby door. Not wanting to fight more maids in his current state, Pink Soma dove under the pile of stuffed animals and secretly observed the room from between a green elephant and a pink dinosaur.

* * *

Jonathan and Red Soma were in their third room now. They had faced very little in terms of resistance inside the mansion. Persephone maids, flimsy skeletons, and slow axe knights were defeated easily.

"Are you almost done?" Jonathan asked, impatient of his red ally. Red Soma was busy trying to force open a green chest tucked away in the corner of another room full of drawers, shelves, and various plates. Jonathan wondered why someone would want a mansion full of similar looking rooms.

Red Soma finally forced open the treasure chest, grinning in delight as he pulled his prize out. "Hey noob, look at this," Jonathan looked over to see that Red Soma was now wearing a sort of viking helmet on his head. "How do I look?"

"Ridiculous..." Jonathan answered honestly.

"Shut the hell up! You're just jealous that it makes me look like a badass!" The Soma then pulled something else out of the chest and tossed it towards his partner. "There's something for you. Put it on!"

Jonathan caught it and saw it was a monocle. "No thanks..."

"Come on! You'll look cool!" Red Soma urged. Jonathan sighed and hooked the chain to the collar of his coat, then placed the monocle neatly on his left eye. Red Soma had the appropriate response: "Dork!"

"Ugh," Jonathan quickly removed the eye piece and shoved it into his pocket. "Can we go now?"

"Fine, sure, whatever. There's no more treasure in here anymore." He said as he adjusted his viking helmet one last time before gripping his pole axe in hand and heading for the nearest door.

The next hallway was the same as the last, with the same amount of foes blocking their path. Jonathan wondered if he would get a chance to use the new grenades he got this morning.

The next room was a bit different. It was empty, save for a single doorway at the far end of the room. Next to it was what appeared to be a giant picture with smaller numbered squares within and an empty space somewhere in the middle. Right in front of that strange picture was a pressure switch.

"Tch, no treasure." Red Soma continued quickly into the next room. Jonathan stopped to examine the weird picture, trying to push his hand into it in the off chance it worked like that last few portraits he came across. "What the hell? There's a dead end!"

Jonathan rushed into the next room to join Soma... only to find he was right. The room in question was small with plain red wallpaper. There were two doorways on either side of the walls, but a solid brick wall prevented further progress. There was a small picture hanging on the wall with the number '3' displayed upon it.

"Well... let's go back." Jonathan suggested as he pulled Red Soma back into the larger room. He then noticed the pressure switch and eagerly jumped onto it. The large picture in front of him then flashed with a light, and the numbered squares within began to glow. "Eh?"

"The fuck did you do now?"

"I... don't know?" Out of impulse, Jonathan reached out to the large picture and moved the numbered squares along with the empty space. Ahead of them was the loud sound of something large moving. "What was that?"

Red Soma went back into the number three room, only to come back within seconds. "Hey! There's a path now!"

Curious Jonathan left his beloved pressure switch and went with Red Soma to check the room. It indeed had a path before them into yet another small room with a numbered portrait. '5'

"I'll go back and mess around until we can get a path. Stay here and tell me when you find a way out." Jonathan said as he ran back to the switch and picture puzzle. He began moving the numbered rooms carefully, lining up the doorways from beginning to end. Unfortunately solving puzzles was never Jonathan's strong point, and it was becoming frustrating for the poor boy to make a clear path. Red Soma, who unwisely chose to stay inside room four, was now trapped on all sides due to Jonathan's poor placement.

Finally after nearly an hour of trial and error, Jonathan managed to make a clean path from start to finish. Red Soma stepped back into the room, looking a bit peeved from being moved about and trapped randomly. The occasional monster was guarding the various numbered rooms, causing the poor boy to fight alone.

* * *

As the two continued on, Red Soma built up the courage to get something off his chest, "Yo Noob, you have a weird dream last night?"

"I have a name you know," Jonathan sighed, "and yes I did. Why?"

"Weeeeell... what was it about?"

Jonathan hesitated for a moment, "Why do you want to know?" the rather disturbing images threatened to reveal themselves in his head again. "I would rather not talk about it."

"Come on! I know you dreamt about some monster guy," Red Soma pressed.

"You know about the Puppet Master? How...?"

Instantly, the Red Soma began to reflect on what he dreamt about last night, "Uhhh..."

_Red Soma let out a sigh of satisfaction and fell back onto his bed, "That was great, Mina. You're getting better and better!"_

_He looked over at his young friend at his side and enjoyment turned to horror as he saw the face of the Puppet Master on her body, __**"I LOVE YOU, HONEY!"**_

"...I read about it." the boy lied.

The two continued on with silence. Occasionally they would stop and check little rooms off to the sides, fighting the mansion baddies and picking up some treasure or two.

The next room they checked was different though. It was an actual bedroom complete with dressers, a vanity mirror, and an open closet full of various dresses and outfits. The bed in the middle of the room was king sized and circular. The bed sheets and pillows were a deep shade of purple, as were the canopy curtains surrounding it. Despite having no windows or light fixtures, the room was alit with countless scented candles.

Red Soma and Jonathan paused at the doorway. The room gave off a very erotic feel and was offsetting to the two boys. "Nothing here, let's go," Jonathan tried as he headed for the door.

"Not so fast!" Red Soma grabbed the boy's collar and pulled him back into the room. "We check for treasure, remember?"

Jonathan sighed as Red Soma looked under the bed and even crawled under it completely. As long as he was stuck in the room, he might as well search around too. He made his way over to one of the dressers and pulled one out, only to blush furiously and close it quickly. _"What am I doing?" _he briefly wondered. He wouldn't be finding anything valuable inside a panty drawer, although the idea of selling the undergarments to Hammer did propose itself.

His eyes then turned towards the closet, with its wide open door inviting him in. Jonathan carefully crept into the closet, pushing past the wall of dresses that were hung just beyond the doorway. Behind the clothes revealed that the closet was bigger than he initially thought. Countless more dresses and various other outfits were hung along the surrounding walls. At the other end of the room was a larger vanity mirror.

Jonathan gasped and promptly blushed as he saw a woman standing in front of this second vanity mirror. She was tall, slender, and young. Long blonde hair cascaded down her back. Her skin was smooth and clean of any marks, obviously cared for deeply. The woman was only wearing a skirt with black pantyhose underneath and was in the midst of attaching the hooks of her bra when she noticed her visitor in the reflection of her mirror. Instead of embarrassment and anger, the woman smiled and turned to the boy. "Hey there..."

Jonathan was slowly backing away with his hands covering his eyes, "I'm sorry! I didn't see anything!" he called apologetically as he stumbled back out into the bedroom. He tripped over himself in a hurry and fell to his back. The woman slowly emerged from the closet, still half dressed and smiling confidently. "I didn't know anyone was in here. I was just heading out."

"What's the hurry? Why don't you stick around and have a little fun?" The woman smiled. She got down onto her hands and knees and slowly crawled over to the struggling teen, enjoying how his face turned into a shade of red that matched his coat. "Come to me."

The boy was at a loss. There was a beautiful woman making her way towards him in such a place at such a time. It was a trap and his life was in danger, this he knew. However despite realizing this, he couldn't gather the strength to grab his weapon. All reasoning in his head had left him. He would even dare admit that he was anticipating what she would do.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Asked a familiar voice. Jonathan instantly snapped out of his trance and looked over to see Red Soma's head peeking out from under the large bed. "Who is this hoe?"

Jonathan quickly regained his senses and kicked the approaching woman hard in the face, sending her reeling back in pain. The boy quickly jumped to his feet and brandished the Vampire Killer in hand, just in time to see the woman's form transform into her true appearance. "Succubus!"

The succubus hissed and made a desperate swipe at Jonathan. She missed when the hunter hopped back and returned the favor with a whip smack to the face, damaging her pretty features further.

"How dare you..." The succubus placed a finger to her lip to find blood trickling from her nose. "How dare you ruin my beautiful face!" She roared as she lunged forward.

"Suck on this!" Jonathan quickly pulled the pin from one of his new grenades and stuffed it into the mouth of the succubus, halting her advance. He then kicked her back into the closet, shut the doors, and quickly dove behind the bed just before the grenade went off.

The closet doors fell to the floor after being blown from the hinges. The closet itself was a gory mess, ensuring that the succubus had indeed perished.

"You know you're never going to get laid." Red Soma spoke as he climbed out from under the bed.

"W-What is that supposed to mean?" The boy asked.

"You treat all your women like that?"

"Soma... that was a succubus." Jonathan sighed.

Red Soma shrugged. "What's your point? A girl is a girl."

"I don't... nevermind." Jonathan felt a serious headache forming. Although he would hate to admit it, he did owe the Red Soma a debt of gratitude. If he hadn't shown up, Jonathan would've surely been the succubus' plaything by now. _'Can't believe I got seduced twice now...'_

"Whatever. Let's go, there was nothing under there anyway." Red Soma said as he re-adjusted his viking helmet and left the room. Jonathan took one last look at the closet and then followed.

* * *

The Red Team continued their trek through the Puppet Master's Manor. It was a mansion that was certainly bigger than it looked on the outside, thanks to the inclusion of rooms beneath the ground. The duo now found themselves in what appeared to be a green room. The grass at their feet was overgrown and the walls were covered with countless vines. Various flowers were growing on the walls while mushrooms grew on the floor.

"This room sucks. Next."

"Hold on, we might find the Puppet Master through here." Jonathan said as he stopped his partner's exit. "Or you know... treasure?"

"What kind've treasure are we gonna find here? A pretty little daisy? Stupid noob!" Red Soma spat as he pushed past the teen.

"Yeah, and I suppose succubi kept all kinds of goodies underneath their beds." Jonathan commented. Red Soma stopped and turned around. "Guess you're about as much of a noob as I am, huh?"

"You take that back," The older boy demanded as he gripped his halberd tightly in hand. "Take it back or I'm kicking your ass!"

Jonathan uncurled the Vampire Killer yet again and held it at the ready. "Not if I kick yours first!"

"Guuuuys! Stop your fighting!" Came an unfamiliar voice. Jonathan and Red Soma held off their attacks and turned to see a green figure power walking towards them. "Friends mustn't fight!"

It was a man who wore elegant, expensive-looking clothing. His green and red cape flowed behind him along with his long silvery hair.

The two red teens looked at each other briefly, and then back to the man who wore an awful lot of green. They both asked the same question on their minds. "Who are you?"

The man smiled. "My name is Alucard, but my friends call me Al!"

"Al? Well that's a stupid nickname..." Red Soma spoke under his breath.

Jonathan however repeated the man's full name to himself, thinking back to where he heard it before. "Alucard... Alucard... wait, aren't you that guy who is named after Eric's spear?"

"The spear is named after me, silly," Green Alucard nodded. "But yes, that's me. Son of Dracula and lover of humans everywhere!"

The two teens took an uneasy step back. "This guy is starting to creep me out," Red Soma whispered.

The other nodded. "Yeah, he seems way too happy for his own good."

Suddenly Green Alucard intruded on their little huddle, forming it into what appeared to be a group hug. "I'm so happy to finally run into other vampire hunters like myself! Ooooh this is so fun, isn't it? Working together like this to save the world!"

The red team struggled under the grip of the surprisingly strong Alucard. The green one led them deeper into the green room, taking them towards an exit that neither team had yet to take. "Will you let me go?"

"Oh, sorry about that." Al apologized as he released the two boys. "Say, what're your names?"

"I'm Jo-"

"I don't have to tell you my name! Ahhhh!" Red Soma screamed as he ran off in a frenzy.

The two silently watched the boy until he disappeared behind a couple of bushes. "Uh, I'm Jonathan Morris."

Green Alucard smiled and shook his hand. "Well met, friend! So what brings you here?"

"Well... huh?" Jonathan's eyes then noticed what seemed to be a large mushroom slowly making its way towards the duo. "Is that thing moving?"

Green Alucard blinked, then pulled out what seemed to be a staff with a crescent moon on the end of it. He walked over to the moving fungus and whacked it a couple times before coming back. "So you were saying?"

Jonathan noticed that a purple zombie was beneath the fungus, and he had the unfortunate fate of a giant mushroom growing out of his back. He watched the last few gasps of poison gas leave the corpse before returning his gaze to Alucard. "I'm here to find the Puppet Master."

"Puppet Master? What a coincidence, so am I!" Green Alucard cheered. "We should go together, what do you say?"

Jonathan briefly wondered if teaming up with the son of Dracula was the smartest move he could make in his career as a vampire hunter, but Alucard looked like a good natured man. He was at least nice, if not a little too nice. The three Somas all had a weird quirk that made it hard to work with them. "Sure."

* * *

After what seemed like an eternity, the Persephone maids finally left the bar. Cleaning the room was obviously not in their schedule, leaving them to rush out in a hurry once they were done. A replacement skeleton bartender casually donned the outfit of the last bartender lost in the earlier skirmish, and resumed cleaning the counter top.

Pink Soma, who admittedly dozed off inside the pile of stuffed animals, was about to leave his hiding spot when the door to the large room once again opened. He made sure to squirm in deeper next to the yellow monkey and the blue giraffe before peeking out.

A young woman walked into the room now. Her bizarre outfit looked similar to that of a nun's. A mixture of black and white with a large blue cross over her chest. The nun's habit she wore was exceptionally long to cover the exposed back of her tight fighting outfit and what appeared to be a large red tattoo.

Pink Soma observed carefully as the woman casually strolled over to the next door across the room, firing forth a single bolt of lightning to destroy the new skeleton bartender as she did so. She hesitated at the door for a moment, glancing back towards the odd pile of stuffed animals near the iron maiden. "Show yourself."

_'Eep!' _Pink Soma froze. _'If I don't move, she won't see me.'_

"I can see you," The woman spoke as though she read Pink Soma's mind. "Come out."

_'Darn.' _Pooling together his willpower, the Soma slowly rose from his protective shell of toys. "Don't hurt me?"

The woman carefully observed Pink Soma as he made his way slowly to her. She circled around him twice, taking in his stance as well as the yellow teddy bear he still had clutched in his hands. "I sense a dark presence within you... yet it is very faint. Who are you?"

"I'm Soma," The boy answered while sticking his free hand out. "Are you going to hurt me?"

The woman stared into his eyes for a moment. The Pink Soma's jitters came back as he expected the worst. Finally she responded, "No," before shaking his hand. "We're all children of god, no matter how fallen. I will judge you for your actions, not your character."

"Does that mean you're not going to hurt me?"

She nodded, "Yes," and turned heel towards the door. "Will you join me?" Not wanting to be alone, Pink Soma quickly caught up to the woman. As she opened the door, she finally answered. "My name is Shanoa."

* * *

Green Alucard and Jonathan had found themselves under constant attack from Moldy Corpses while they were in the forested rooms. Red Soma was still nowhere to be found.

Jonathan scratched his head as he peered into the dark forest of trees. "Where'd he disappear to? Should we split up?"

"No, no you silly goose!" Green Alucard laughed as he finished off the last mushroom fiend. "What good will finding your friend be if the other becomes lost? We'll be here all day if we do that!"

"It already feels like I've been in this mansion all day." Jonathan sighed. A giant plant rose from the dirt in front of him, releasing a swarm of demon seed in his direction. Rather than act concerned for his safety, Jonathan merely held in place while Green Alucard jumped over and held up a yellow and black shield to block all the seed away. One careful throw of the knife into the plant's open mouth was all it took to demolish the foe. "I hate plants."

"Oh? Oh! Oh! I hear something from down yonder!" Green Alucard signaled as he ran down the forest path. Jonathan kept pace as they followed the ever growing sounds of familiar cursing and swearing. "A Red Soma spotted!"

True enough, ahead of them was the other red clad hunter with his viking helmet. His foot was caught by an Une plant, but he was too busy fighting off a headless skeleton that was blindly swiping at him. "Somebody help me!"

"Well this is fun." Jonathan smiled, amused by the sight before him. "Al, let's see how this plays out."

"But it looks like he's in danger! We must help him!" Green Alucard leapt into action by simply turning the skeleton around and pushing him off in another random direction, then cutting the weeds of the Une plant with his Moon Rod. "There! You are free once more, friend!"

"About time..." Red Soma grumbled. He then turned his attention over to Jonathan, who was whistling innocently. "Let's see how this plays out, huh?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jonathan shrugged.

"Is that how you repay me for saving your life from the succubus?"

"Oop." Jonathan nearly facepalmed. He DID owe it to Red Soma that he was able to overcome seduction. As much as he didn't want to, he had to apologize. "Sorry..."

"And you better be!" Red Soma smirked. "I mean if it wasn't for me, you'd be dead by now!"

"Yeah, yeah..."

"I mean don't you have any common sense? Never trust a woman in a place like this!" Red Soma continued. "Such a noob!"

"I get it..." Jonathan grumbled. Despite not even knowing what a 'noob' was, he let Red Soma say what he wanted. Anything to get him to shut up sooner and continue with the quest.

_"Guuuuuuys!_" Alucard stressed as he jumped between them. "Friends shouldn't fight!"

"We're not friends!" The two red vampire hunters protested in unison. Red Soma glared at his red rival before continuing, "He's just helping me find treasure!"

Jonathan nodded. "And I'm just using him to find a way back home."

Green Alucard grinned like a cheshire cat, which almost scared the two young boys. "Sounds like friends to me~"

"Ugh! Aaaaagggghhhh!" Red Soma screamed as he attempted to run off once again. Jonathan and Green Alucard were ready this time and grabbed onto the back of his tailcoat before he could get away. "Let me goooooo! You two are annoying the shit outta meeeee!"

"Looks like there is an exit over there. I'm all for leaving this place." Jonathan stated as he went for the nearest opening. Just as the trio got to the exit, a giant tree seemingly stepped out to block their path. "Huh?"

It was a Treant. The disguised monster wound back its leg in an attempt to kick the three back into the forest, but the vampire hunters were too swift for the attack. Green Alucard's Moon Rod began to glow an ethereal blue color. With one swing, a number of blue crescent blades shot out of the rod and diced the tree into smaller bits. Red Soma ran up to the defeated monster and kicked the trunk once, just to feel important.

"Yeah! Take it!" Red Soma smiled. His smiled faded when he noticed an army of Treants making their way towards them. "Oh sheeet..."

"Let's leave now." Jonathan calmly said as he headed out the room with Green Alucard in tow.

"I got just the thing for these guys, don't worry!" Red Soma called to them as he held a hand out. A large ball of fire shot forth and set the Treants ablaze in flame. "Burn! Ahahahaha!" He laughed as his magic did its work. He then noticed the trees and grass catch fire within the room, and spread rapidly. "Err... see ya!"

* * *

"Say Alucard?" Jonathan started as the trio walked down another hall of the mansion. "Why exactly are you here anyway?"

"It's Al," The green man corrected him, "and I'm here to find the Puppet Master, remember?"

"But why? Have a bad dream or something?"

"Not me, a friend!" Alucard answered with a smile. No matter how innocent it was, Red Soma felt disturbed that an Alucard was smiling, and he couldn't identify why. "She got marked by the Puppet Master, so I'm here to fight him."

"Is she here somewhere in the mansion too? You two get separated?" Jonathan pondered. Small world.

"Oh no, of course not. She lazily slept in, so I just kinda went in alone!"

"What?" Red Soma looked back to the group, as he stopped to open a chest on the side. "What a lazy bitch! Making a man do all the work?"

"Oh no, it's fine!" Al dismissed the boys' concern. "I wouldn't want my friend to get hurt anyway. Besides I'm sure she'll follow me in whenever she wakes up."

The trio of vampire hunters came to a small room with yet another iron maiden in the corner, the fourth one they had encountered in their journey. Various piles of dolls and stuffed animals located throughout the room and most notably a large, green, dog-like creature found dead in the center of the room.

"I'm sick of looking at these things." Complained the Red Soma. He stepped down onto a doll to further emphasize his point. "I mean what is with this Puppet Master guy? Is he some kind've a kid?"

"Someone else is here." Green Alucard whispered to the two while brandishing his Moon Rod and Herald Shield. The two red hunters readied the Vampire Killer and halberd respectively and crept over to the other side of the Glasya Labolas. A man dressed in black was seen kneeling over something, examining it carefully. "Hi there!"

_"So much for being careful..." _Jonathan easily identified the figure as the Black Soma from the group. "It's you!"

The Black Soma hurriedly stood up to face the group with his muramasa at the ready. He seemed slightly irritated at first, but returned to his stoic expression. "Seems like you two are still alive."

"Where's the other Soma?" Jonathan wondered. Looking around the room, the easy to spot boy wearing all pink was nowhere to be found. "Don't tell me you two got separated?"

"Possibly."

Green Alucard held out his hand for a friendly gesture. "Howdy. My name is Alucard, but you can just call me Al!"

Black Soma merely nodded in Alucard's direction. Red Soma, who was once again sidetracked with treasure chests to open, finally noticed what Black Soma was looking over. "Daaaamn! What happened to her?"

Curious, Jonathan and Green Alucard attempted to look over Black Soma's shoulder, but the dark man strangely turned only the red teen away. "Don't look."

"What? Why not?" Jonathan wondered. It wouldn't be the first time he's seen something dead. "Is it like really gross or something?"

Black Soma ignored his question and instead steered him in the direction of a switch and another exit. "Scout ahead. The Puppet Master's room is near. We'll catch up."

Not wanting to argue, Jonathan nodded and eagerly made his way to the switch.

After the teen left to explore on his own, the three turned over to the corpse by their feet. It was a young girl dressed in familiar clothing, only with a favor of pink over the usual blue. The white blouse was stained with blood and a shocked expression belay her face. "So what happened?" Alucard wondered aloud.

"Bitch got fucked up!" Red Soma blatantly stated.

Green Alucard frowned. "I know that. But I mean... what is the story exactly?"

Black Soma began to recall the events as he observed them. "She was unprepared. The Glasya Labolas was too powerful a foe for someone of her limited power. I did what I could but I wasn't fast enough to save her before a lethal strike was dealt."

"Sucks for her. So why'd you send the noob away?"

"If he had seen her, the shock would've rendered him useless to us. The last thing I want is to carry someone through this ordeal." Black Soma answered as he picked up the discarded Book of Binding. "Dispose of the body incase he comes back."

Red Soma noticed that the Black Soma was headed in the opposite direction that he pointed Jonathan towards. "Where the hell are you going?"

"There's somewhere I want to check. Go on and fight the Puppet Master without me." He ordered. As he neared the exit, he turned to the two once more. "And do not let him know about this."

Green Alucard and Red Soma observed the corpse for a while longer, before Red Soma finally shrugged and buried her within the pile of dolls. "Done!"

"Something... doesn't seem right about this..." Green Alucard tried to play out the scenario in his head. "It looked like she died from a surprise attack, but the wounds..."

"You're thinking too much about it. Some people are just weak and can't handle what we do." Red Soma reassured the man. "Come on, let's fight the Puppet Master guy and get out of this stupid place already!"

* * *

"Aw hell," Sighed the blonde teen. "I didn't think he was THIS close!"

Jonathan unknowingly stepped into a large room filled with iron maidens. The floor seemed to be covered entirely by an assortment of different kinds of dolls with horrified expressions on their faces, similar to the two from Jonathan's dream. In the middle of the room was the Puppet Master, a giant floating head made of wood with four arms jutting out from the back of the head. The Puppet Master immediately noticed his visitor and gave out a sinister laugh.

Not having time to waste waiting on the others, Jonathan quickly charged forward with whip in hand, lashing and smacking the large fiend as he circled around it. He nearly tripped over a broken doll and into an iron maiden, but was able to save himself before landing inside.

The Puppet Master's mouth opened wide and his yellow eyes darkened to a red glow. Several dolls emerged from the demon's mouth and circled overhead. Each wielding a small, but very sharp looking knife.

As though they were one, the puppets dive bombed in unison at the hunter. Jonathan hurled a couple of the axe-subweapons that he had been collecting in his coat up at the dolls, taking a few of them out. The ones he missed however had come dangerously close to the teen, actually managing to slice through his arms and legs as he jumped back. Although he cringed from what was finally his first wounds in the mansion, the cuts weren't too deep to be of any concern.

With another laugh, the Puppet Master created more flying dolls to attack Jonathan. The Vampire Killer and some efficient use of the daggers managed to kill them all this time without harm. It was then that the Puppet Master's eyes returned to their original yellow color as one of his four arms moved towards an iron maiden. "I'll just put this puppet... right inside here..."

Jonathan took the opening to continue the attack on the lord of strings. Although the Puppet Master was taking hit after hit to the face, he kept his smile up as the large mannequin was finally entombed within the iron maiden. With a wicked laugh from the Puppet Master, the red vampire hunter was now transported into the iron maiden.

Or so he thought...

"GAH! OWWW! WHAT THE FUCK? GET ME OUTTA HERE!" Came the screams of the Red Soma within the iron maiden. The Puppet Master realized that Jonathan was still furiously attacking his face while another vampire hunter was transported inside.

Realizing that his foe did not come alone, the Puppet Master began to claw his way to the end of the large room, bursting through the wall as he left.

Jonathan quickly rushed over to the iron maiden and pried it open, releasing an injured and very angry Red Soma. "Geeze, be careful!"

"Well what the fuck? One minute I was chasing after your sorry ass, and the next I was inside that thing with a buncha spikes poking into me! What the hell man?"

"Don't worry about that now, we need to stop him before he gets away!" Jonathan called as he jumped through the giant gapping hole that the Puppet Master created. Red Soma swore revenge as he gripped his halberd in hand and leapt after him.

The two stood on what seemed to be a gigantic piano. The Puppet Master was easily seen making his way towards the other end of the room, pressing down on the keys as he went. Jonathan and Red Soma easily caught up and continued the assault, damaging his two lower arms enough so that they couldn't move any longer.

Enraged, the Puppet Master released a swarm of dolls now, nearly three times as much as before. Jonathan and Red Soma did their best to combat the army of bladed dolls as they flew circles around the two boys, cutting them as they passed. Although they were slowly defeating some, the odds were definitely not in their favor.

Suddenly an angel descended before them. A woman dressed in white. With a wave of the hand, several glowing balls of golden light swirled around her, destroying all of the surrounding dolls.

Red Soma became awestruck at her beauty. "Who the fuck are you?" Was his ever so eloquent response to her.

However the group noticed that the Puppet Master kept summoning an endless amount of dolls from his mouth. A flash of blue light and the familiar sight of flying blue crescent blades to the eyes of the Puppet Master signaled the presence of the Green Alucard in the room. "Hiiiii friends!"

"Hi Al." Red Soma grumbled.

"The fiend is blind! Attack now!" The woman in white ordered as she fired bolts of electricity from her fingers.

Thinking fast, Jonathan unstrapped his belt of grenades and ran up to the Puppet Master. He pulled the pins of a few grenades and tossed the entire belt into the gaping wide mouth of the creature. "Everybody stand clear!" He warned as he ran for the exit. The others fled back into the Puppet Master's room.

At said exit, Pink Soma finally emerged in the doorway, having caught up when Shanoa left him behind to join battle. His spirit improved drastically when he saw Jonathan running towards him. "Hi Jonathan!"

"Watch out!" Jonathan tackled the pink boy down just as the Puppet Master exploded. Burning pieces of the fallen lord of strings scattered about the piano room, some even flying into the room beyond it. Jonathan finally recovered and got up from his position on the Pink Soma. "Sorry about that. Are you okay?"

Pink Soma however didn't answer. He had fainted, possibly from the shock of having Jonathan on top of him. He certainly had a look of bliss on his face.

Throwing the unconscious boy over his shoulder, Jonathan carefully made his way back into the large Puppet Master room where everybody, Black Soma included, were waiting. "Hey."

Red Soma was eagerly watching the golden light within the room form together into a large golden chest. "Treasure! Treasure!" He chanted happily as he pried it open and pulled out a thief ring. The others gathered around pulled out the only treasure that they themselves could only see within the glowing chest.

As Jonathan himself went up, he pulled out a bulky suit of green armor, which then disappeared in a flash of light into his pocket. "Weird..."

"Mission complete! A job well done, friends!" Green Alucard cheered. The celebrations were caught drastically short when the group noticed the room was filling with smoke, and that one end had suddenly caught on fire. "Uhh?"

"Soma," Jonathan started, directed towards the red variant one. "Did... you remember to put out the fire back in the green rooms?"

"Nope." He scoffed.

...

"We should leave." Black Soma stated. The group had no qualms about this idea and quickly followed the man out as the room, and eventually the entire mansion caught fire. Introductions would have to wait.

**End of Chapter 2**

* * *

If you made it this far without skipping, I hope you enjoyed. It is a long read, but I wanted to fit all of the Chapter 2 scenario together, rather than span them out across multiple chapters like a mini-series. If you are put off by the length, be sure to tell me so in the review and I'll try to cut it down for Chapter 3.

Now onto trivia, first comes the questions from Chapter 1.

_**Question 1**__: Gergoth is the boss of Chapter 1. What game(s) can you also find him?_

**Answer 1: **Gergoth can be found in Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin.

_**Question 2:**__ Jonathan used a special attack to finish Gergoth. Can this be done in HD with this particular weapon?_

**Answer 2: **No. Although he is able to perform the Vampire Killer's special attack after defeating the Whip's Memory in PoR, he is unable to do so in HD. Infact NONE of the Belmonts in HD are able to do this in the game. Simon Belmont comes close with a fireball.

_**Question 3:**__ What is Black Soma's sword called and where is it obtained? (Two possible answers for this one)_

**Answer 3: **Muramasa. It is obtained from either Chapter 2's Puppet Master or Chapter 11's Ryukotsuki. There is a +1 variant, but for the sake of this fic it's all the same. (No bonus points for it, but I was impressed people gave me answers for the other games.)

No longer accepting review answers for Chapter 1 questions. If you reviewed and answered beforehand AND managed to get one or all correct, congratulations. I will be keeping track of points for a later time.

Now onto Chapter 2 trivia questions. Remember that these are optional and that I will only accept Harmony of Despair related answers.

**Question 1: **Pink Soma unknowingly discovered his first weapon. What is this weapon?

**Question 2: **Jonathan receives a subweapon from the shop. Can you actually buy subweapons from the shop in game?

**Question 3: **White Shanoa's outfit is not what she usually wears. Where does her alternate outfit come from?

**Question 4: **Jonathan and Red Soma should've been inflicted with a status ailment during the boss fight. What status ailment, and why would they get it?

**Question 5: **What is the significant irony of Hammer being included into the story?

Remember... only HD answers!

Please remember to leave a review! The more reviews I get, the more it encourages me to continue this story~ Have a nice day~


	3. Chapter 3: The Phantasm Train

Here comes the third chapter in my Harmony of Despair centric story! Again, thank you to my reviewers who... well... review. If I had no reviewers, I wouldn't be writing more chapters.

First things first! A detail I forgot to mention about this story is that I am staying away from most gameplay elements. Meaning no skeletons upon death and whatnot. I feel it would really destroy the mood I am aiming for in this story. Thus** if someone dies, they die for real.** Treasure chests remain as a means for new gear.

**Also!** To all my anonymous reviewers and would-be reviewers reading this right now... sign up for an account! I can't keep track of your trivia scores if you have no account! It is free (Last time I checked...) and would really mean a lot to me. Seriously, reviewers with actual accounts are like the cool kids that skip school.

One other thing... to my pals on Xbox Live who regularly play Castlevania HD with me and told me they read my story... REVIEW! Get off your lazy asses and review, it would mean more than saying, "Good job with your story, Ren." _=w=_

Ahem... with that out of the way, here is Chapter 3. Not the chapter you may be expecting, but enjoy it nonetheless!

* * *

**Chapter 3: The Phantasm Train**

"The succubus!" The red teens gasped.

The group had vacated the Puppet Master's mansion as it burnt to the ground. The sun was beginning to set as they stepped outside once more. Everyone unanimously agreed to form a larger camp site to get better acquainted.

As Green Alucard was returning with the supplies from his camp, he also brought with him his lady friend, the one he mentioned previously. A tall, slender woman with long blonde hair. She wore a blue tunic with a black long sleeved blouse underneath. She had black spandex with thigh high boots, and a large green sash wrapped around her waist where a tiny red book hung.

It didn't take two seconds for Red Soma and Jonathan especially to recognize her. The succubus encounter from earlier was still fresh in the younger teen's mind.

"Don't worry, noob! I'll ram her hard!" Red Soma declared as he lowered his head and took a charging position. The horns of his viking helmet were pointed directly at the woman.

"Oh my," The blue woman gasped, visually excited. "You'll ram me?"

"Guys," Green Alucard proudly started. "Meet my bestest friend, Yoko! She was the girl I told you about a few hours ago!"

Jonathan and Red Soma's eyes finally left the woman. "Eh? You mean... her?" Red Soma pointed, dumbfounded. "You mean that other hoe wasn't your girlfriend?"

"_Lady_ friend," Green Alucard stressed. "and no, she wasn't. I thought she was with you."

Blue Yoko made her way over to the two boys. She had a confident smile on her features. "Hey there, nice to meet you two."

The red team huddled up again. Jonathan peeked over his shoulder back at the woman, who smiled and waved. "What if she's a succubus in disguise? Maybe she's fooling Al."

Red Soma nodded. "Yeah. She might be. How'd you reveal that last succubus again?"

"I hit her. I think if the succubi are harmed, they revert to their normal forms."

"Sounds like a plan," Blue Yoko whispered to the two. It took Jonathan and Red Soma five seconds to realize she was huddled up with them. They both jumped back in surprise, while Blue Yoko only giggled. "Feel free to come and spank me, boys~"

The two teens were quite shocked at the response she was giving them. She certainly acted like a succubus, but there was no hypnotizing charm to her. "What?"

"Oooooh, when is that ramming you promised me? Make it hard so I can feel it~" Blue Yoko teased with a shake of her hips.

There was an awkward silence between the two boys. Blue Yoko winked, which actually made the two feel rather uncomfortable. Green Alucard just smiled and nodded.

Red Soma then spotted Hammer's tent finally set up and smiled. "Oh, I gotta go sell mah shit. Catch you fools later!"

"Hey, wait!" Jonathan tried before he felt an embrace from behind. "Ah?"

"Hey... does this mean you're going to _ram _me then?" The woman whispered into his ear. "I like them young~"

A blush crept onto Jonathan's face. He was at a loss for words as he felt the woman hug tighter. Her breasts were certainly soft on his back.

Just then the Pink Soma appeared, waving at the group timidly. "Umm... umm... the Black Soma wants to see Jonathan..."

Blue Yoko whined as she reluctantly released her captive. "Just before the good part..."

Jonathan walked at a rather brisk pace away from the creepy woman. When he was far enough from hearing range, he turned to the Pink Soma. "So what does he want?"

"N-nothing..." the boy shyly looked away. "I made it up because I saw you were in trouble."

"Oh? Hey, thanks a lot. you really bailed me out back there." Jonathan smiled. He pat the boy's shoulder before wandering elsewhere in camp.

Pink Soma looked ready to confess something, but was too choked up on his own words.

Back in the main part of the Hunter's Camp, Jonathan found White Shanoa setting up the tents. He casually made his way over and picked up one of the iron hooks. "Hey."

The woman looked over briefly, "Greetings."

Silence.

"So uhh... I noticed you were by your lonesome, so I thought you could use some help." Jonathan explained as he twirled the iron rod around his finger.

"I see," She replied.

Awkward silence.

"..."

"..."

Extremely awkward silence.

"I'm gonna go gather some firewood." Jonathan said, hoping to escape this situation.

White Shanoa shook her head, "No need." Jonathan blinked and noticed a pile of freshly chopped wood by her feet. Before he could even react, Shanoa responded, "I did it."

"Wow, you sure work hard."

"Spend your time on earth working hard and the holy father will reward you." She quoted as she finished pitching up one tent. She finally turned to look at the boy while wiping the beads of sweat from her forehead. "Please, go relax. I will handle everything."

Jonathan didn't exactly feel comfortable watching a woman do all the labor work. It was a refreshing change of pace compared to his previous female partner, but it just didn't sit right. "Let me set this one up."

White Shanoa took a curious glance over. "You are sure?"

"Yeah, no problem. I can't let you do everything." Jonathan said as he picked up the poles for the next tent. White Shanoa nodded and went on her way without a sound. She was gone before Jonathan even noticed. "I didn't even ask her name yet..."

An hour passed.

Nearly the entire group was assembled by the campfire. They had better introduced themselves and told previous trials before meeting up in the Puppet Master's mansion over dinner, then went into entertainment.

"Hey," Red Soma spoke up while grabbing a flashlight. "Wanna hear a ghost story?"

Pink Soma froze, "Umm... I don't really want-"

"Sure!" Interrupted the Green Alucard, much to the pink one's dismay.

Red Soma nodded and switched on the flashlight, holding it just below his face. "There's a story of an old train that used to pass through this area late every night. One of those steam locomotive types, ya know? Carrying hundreds of passengers across the country. But one night... on a full moon... one of the common passengers inside transformed into this giant werewolf and starting mauling the other passengers inside! The End."

"That's it?" Blue Yoko questioned. "That wasn't a ghost story."

"Well they died and all turned into ghosts." Red Soma finished. He was about to shut off the flashlight, but held it under his face for one last detail. "Werewolf ghosts!"

"That sounds delightful," Green Alucard said. He received odd stares all around.

White Shanoa pondered more on the subject. "Werewolf ghosts? Departed spirits that transform into wolves on a full moon, or are they permanently in wolf form?"

"His story sucked," said the Blue Yoko as she snatched the flashlight. "Let me show you how it's done."

"No more, I won't be able to sleep tonight!" cried the Pink Soma.

Blue Yoko ignored him and held the flashlight below her face. "Oh yes... there was an old train alright, but certainly no werewolves. However an unfortunate accident did befall the train."

"Why is it an unfortunate accident? Is there such a thing as a fortunate accident?" Red Soma complained. "And why are you taking my story?"

The woman ignored him and continued, "The train was making a run late one night... the night that Castlevania rose once again. The castle had located itself deep in the woods and on top of the train tracks. The conductor noticed too late the castle hidden in the mist and could not stop the train in time. The train crashed through the solid brick wall and into the depths of Castlevania itself."

"They all died. The end."

"Not so fast," Blue Yoko wagged her finger at the Red Soma. "The passengers suffered a fate worse than death."

"And that would be?" asked the curious White Shanoa.

"The evil of Castlevania corrupted the poor people on the train. Their souls were bound to the vessel for all eternity." Blue Yoko stood up and began pacing around the group. "They say that you can still find the train traveling at night, intending to finally deliver its passengers to its destination. People also say that if you go to where Castlevania once stood at that very night, you can witness the ghost train crash all over again. A never ending cycle of death." The woman finished the story by shutting off the flashlight.

"Ooooooh, good story, Yoko!" Green Alucard clapped.

"Sucked," Red Soma shrugged. "Not enough werewolves."

While the others were bickering over the superior campfire story, Black Soma silently left the group. He ventured on over to the one person who was not present at the group, Jonathan.

The boy was still messing with the poles and hooks. He had never pitched a tent before in his life, and it was certainly more complicated than he thought.

Black Soma casually approached the teen. "Do you need some help?"

"A little help would be nice." He spoke from beneath the tent covers.

Black Soma pulled out a sheet of paper and dropped it to the ground. "Instructions. Have fun."

"Eh? That's it?"

"You asked for a 'little' help." Black Soma mocked. He took a seat on a nearby tree stump and made himself comfortable. "Hope you can read in the dark."

Jonathan grumbled and picked the instruction sheet up. He pulled out his lighter and clicked the flame on, glancing over the instructions. "...They're all in Japanese!"

Black Soma smirked, "Indeed."

Frustrated, Jonathan began hammering the iron pods into the tent fabric. It would ruin the material, but it was clear he wouldn't be getting any help. He was simply too tired from today's events to argue.

"I've got a question for you," The older man spoke seriously now. Jonathan briefly gave him his attention while making sure the tent was sturdy enough to survive the night. "Did you find anyone else in the mansion?"

"No."

"...Are you certain?"

"Positive," Jonathan huffed. "It's pretty hard to forget when **EVERYONE** I run into acts weird. Why is that, anyway?"

"Simply your imagination," Black Soma answered.

The man paced around the stump, whispering incoherently to himself. He observed Jonathan from the corner of his eye, watching him continue to struggle with his toughest challenge yet. For an instant, the iris of his eyes changed into a red hue, but quickly reverted to a dull black color.

"Did you remember to look for your friend?" He finally asked. He noticed the boy freeze for a second before shaking his head. "I see..."

Jonathan remained silent as he worked. Black Soma watched carefully, but he couldn't see the expression on his face. "It's important that you find her soon-"

"She can handle herself," Jonathan interrupted. "I'm not worried."

"If I were you... I would be." Came the ominous reply.

The Black Soma went for his tent, turning in for the night. Jonathan silently watched him go before climbing into his own tent to lie down. In truth, he was worried. Why wouldn't he be? His best friend had been missing for two nights now, and there was still no sign of her.

He replayed today's ordeal over in his mind. Would things have been easier with her around as guidance? He had always preferred to work alone when she was around, but now sorely missed her assistance.

No, not just that...

With a heavy sigh, Jonathan turned over to his side and shut his eyes. "Damn, it's cold..." he murmured shortly before falling asleep.

* * *

The group had spent the entire day traveling through a dense forest. The three groups had merged into one with the goal of defeating Dracula. They had traveled long enough to leave the snow covered areas of the forest, and the weather actually started to warm up a bit.

However today was a gloomy day. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was blanketed by a thick layer of grey clouds.

"Oh... I see..." Blue Yoko responded. "So you like him!"

"Not so loud!" The Pink Soma nearly jumped as the woman's tone of voice. He watched for any signs of the boys up in front of the pack to see if they had heard. "Yes..."

"Well then the best way is to tell him how you feel." Blue Yoko told the young boy. She had just finished prying who he was interested in, since it was obvious he wasn't playing on their team... so to speak.

"I... I tried?"

"Oooooh... so you're nervous? You are SO adorable!" Blue Yoko squealed as she squeezed the frail boy. Pink Soma squirmed in her grasp before he was let go, gasping for air. "There's nothing to be afraid of. Who couldn't like you?"

"W-well..."

"No buts! Just for that, you must confess your love right now!" Yoko said as she started pushing the boy faster, towards the front of the group.

"Ah? B-b-b-ut I didn't sa-"

"You just diiiiid~" She winked. She gave the boy one final shove forward and stepped back to watch the scene unfold.

Jonathan nearly stumbled, having felt someone crash into him from behind. He turned to find a flustered Pink Soma. "You okay? Gotta watch your step out here."

"Errr... I... uhh..." Pink Soma struggled with the words racing through his mind.

"What's the little punk's problem now?" Complained the Red Soma as he stopped. The rest of the group came to a halt as well and gave their undivided attention to the youngest boy.

Feeling immense pressure, Pink Soma looked back to Blue Yoko for help. She gave him a thumbs up. "I-I-I... I-"

"Do you have to go to the bathroom? Is that it?" Jonathan guessed. He noticed the other Somas were getting irritated at the hold up. "None of us are gonna look, so make it quick, okay?"

Pink Soma shook his head. "I-I... I l-l-love... love y-"

"TOES!"

"You love toes?" Everyone questioned in uncanny unison.

Suddenly Green Alucard noticed a mysterious figure standing atop the tallest tree branch overhead. The small figure jumped off the tree and tackled the Pink Soma down to the ground, enticing a yelp from the boy.

Mesmerized by what was happening before their eyes, the others merely watched as Pink Soma wrestled with a young girl.

A girl twelve years of age. She wore a frilly purple dress with black cloth boots on her feet. Her hair was platinum blonde with a black ribbon in her hair. The girl's skin was exceptionally pale and she had yellow eyes.

After an amusing minute of watching the two struggle, Red Soma ended the fun by picking the small girl up by the back of her collar. "Alright ya brat, what do ya want with us?"

The girl hissed and struggled under the grip, "Release me, stupid human! How dare you!"

"Uhh... okay." Red Soma shrugged. He dropped the little girl as commanded.

The girl was dumped flat on her face, "Ouchies..." then jumped up and brushed the dirt off her dress. "How dare you! Eh?"

The girl's eyes widened when she realized the group continued on, leaving her behind. She ran quickly to catch up, halting their progress once more by standing before the group with her arms spread wide. "I command you all to halt!"

"Why's a little girl out here in the woods anyway? Go on home, ya brat." Shooed the Red Soma.

"Watch your tongue, mortal! Do you not know who you are talking to?" The little girl yelled. She received blank stares all around. "W-well... I suppose just this once, I will introduce myself to you lowly peasants. I am Maria Renard! The world's greatest vampire! EH?"

The group had left her again. Maria quickly caught up once again, bringing the party to another stop. "You still botherin' us?"

"How dare you walk away when I am talking to you!" She huffed. "I was only going to take your blood and leave, but now that you've made me angry, I just might have to kill you all!"

The group exchanged blank stares. Everyone then equipped their weapons in hand.

Maria's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "EH? B-b-b-but if you beg, I just might let you all go with a warning! Hah!"

"Alright. Bye!" Green Alucard waved to the girl as the group continued on once again.

Maria stomped her foot and turned to the group. She glared daggers as they left her behind. "WAIT! You didn't drop to your knees and beg! Agh! THIS ISN'T OVER!"

"Bye freak." Red Soma sighed.

Suddenly the low roar of thunder came. Water droplets slowly fell onto the group, as the grey clouds darkened in color.

"Oh no, it is raining," Green Alucard said.

"No shit, Sherlock, can we set up camp now?" Red Soma asked as he dug through his supplies.

"No. We keep going," The Black Soma commanded.

Despite protests, the group continued through the forest under the light drizzle. Soon enough, however, the rain fall increased into a downpour, and the boom of thunder resonated through the land.

The vampire hunters were becoming drenched. Green Alucard and Pink Soma made makeshift umbrellas with their Herald Shield and Terror Bear. Jonathan had to make due with pulling his coat over his head. Red Soma and White Shanoa were fortunate enough to wear headgear, but Blue Yoko was soaked to the bone.

"Can we stop now?" Blue Yoko yelled through the heavy rain.

Black Soma studied his surroundings, looking for the ideal spot to take cover until the storm passed. He eyed a mysterious object shrouded in fog in the distance, thanks to his peeping eye soul. "There's shelter up ahead. Come on."

The gang hurried through the rain. The fog was growing more dense as they continued on until they eventually came upon a clearing in the woods. In the middle was an old rundown train.

"We'll wait in there until the storm passes." Black Soma said as he lead the group over to the forgotten vehicle.

Red Soma stood his ground, wide eyed at what he saw. "No way man! It's the ghost train!"

"Soma, come on!" Jonathan called as he waited for the others to jump into the closest passenger car. "It's just an old train!"

"Yeah! An old **ghost** train!" He shouted back through the rain.

"Forget him. Leave him out here." Black Soma said as he and Jonathan were the last to jump into the car. Red Soma stood outside in the rain, shivering for nearly a minute before running in after the others.

* * *

It was an old passenger car with nine rows of two cushioned seats on either side of the car. Unlike most other models, these seats weren't separated by rooms. A lush blue carpet was laid out between the rows, from one end of the car to the other. A small, broken chandelier hung in the middle of the car, while another chandelier was found in pieces around the north exit. The windows were all thankfully intact and closed.

"It's stuffy in here," Green Alucard coughed as he sat onto a red seat. A cloud of dust was released into the air. "...and dusty."

"I'm s-sooooo... cold..." Blue Yoko shivered. "I n-n-need... to get out of these wet clothes...!"

"Sure is getting rough out there." Jonathan observed from the window.

"It's likely we'll be stuck here for the night. Better change out of your wet clothes if you don't want to catch a cold." Black Soma instructed. He noticed Blue Yoko wasted no time in stripping her soaked clothes from her body at an unnecessarily slow pace. "...Preferably in different rooms. The guys will go into the next car."

"What? No way," Red Soma complained as he sat next to Alucard. "I'm nice an comfortable."

"Oh? Maybe you enjoy a show~" Blue Yoko teased.

"...Alright, all the men follow me."

The boys quickly ventured into the next train car. This car had a single pathway on the left side of the train, while the right half contained separated rooms, completed with bunk beds and closets. These were rooms in which passengers who paid extra could have a room to themselves.

Red Soma, Pink Soma, and Green Alucard wasted no time in picking their own rooms to change out of their wet clothes. Jonathan and Black Soma stood idly by in the hallway. Jonathan had no clothes of his own to change into, and the Black Soma just did not care enough to change.

"Such a bother..." The Soma sighed.

Jonathan looked away from his fogged window art. "Problem?"

"I had hoped to reach Dracula's Castle by now." He glanced over from his position at the end of the hall to see the boy hadn't changed his attire. "Why are you still in those clothes?"

"I've got nothing else to change into." Jonathan shrugged. He quickly caught a large bag that the Black Soma had thrown at him. "What's this?"

"Change into them," He ordered simply.

"But-"

"You're going to be a pain if you get sick," The Soma pointed to an unoccupied room. "Change. Now."

Jonathan was starting to shiver from the feel of wet clothes sticking to his body. He nodded and went into the closest room, removing the Black Soma's extra pair of clothes and changing into them.

The shirt and pants were still black, and thankfully fit him well. He had also found a spare coat inside the travel bag. Jonathan hung his wet clothes up to dry inside the closet.

_"This is a little much..." _The boy thought as he noticed his changed look in the mirror. The coat he wore now was slightly larger than his first coat, and black in color with a gold trim around the collar.

Just then the train car shook. Losing his balance, Jonathan fell onto the bed and smacked his head against the window. Looking back, he could see the trees were moving.

No, not the trees. The train was moving.

The boy quickly ran back out into the hallway, as did the other men. "What's going on?"

"Dude! The train is moving!" Red Soma gasped as he peered out the window. "I told you! I told you it's the ghost train! We're all doomed!"

"Calm down," Black Soma said, irritated at all the noise. "I'll go check it out."

"I'll go with you," Jonathan said as he retrieved the whip from his room.

"No, stay here."

"But-"

"Just do as I say," The man sighed. He noticed the Red Soma hand him a device. "What is this?"

"Hammer gave it to me," The red one explained. "It's a radio. We can communicate with each other from different areas. I figured it'd be useful since we're always splittin up and shit."

"Wow, nice thinking Soma!" Green Alucard clapped in approval.

"Thanks. I am pretty smart, aren't I?"

Black Soma silently pocketed the device and went for the exit, traveling north towards the front of the train. The others idled by the rooms for a short time.

Suddenly a shout from the girls' room prompted the team to rush back.

Red Soma practically leapt into the room with his halberd at the ready. "What's wrong?"

"We saw someone by the window!" Blue Yoko pointed at the window near the south side of the train car. "I didn't get a good look at him, but he was definitely human."

"Human? I guess that means someone else got onboard." Jonathan guessed. "Probably taking shelter from the storm."

"He was wearing dark clothing," The Blue Yoko pointed out. "And moved unnaturally fast. I don't think it was any ordinary person."

The group exchanged glances. A humanoid figure in dark clothing with inhuman speed could only mean one thing.

A vampire.

"Well somebody should get on that," Red Soma waved as he made himself comfortable on a cushion. "Before he like... sabotages the haunted train or something like that."

"You're not coming?" Jonathan questioned, already halfway to the opposite door. "Come on, this is our job!"

"It's YOUR job," The boy said before shutting his eyes. "I'm only in this for the loot."

"I'll help!" Green Alucard volunteered, power walking his way over. "I love helping!"

"But Al!" Blue Yoko whined irritably, "You know I hate thunder storms. Don't go leaving a girl all alone now!" she said as she pulled him back.

"Oh. Okay. Sorry friend, I guess I'm all tied up." Green Alucard said apologetically.

Jonathan scratched his head and pushed aside some questions he had for the two. He noticed another member of the group was missing. "Where's the other Soma?"

"That girly one? Yeah, he's asleep," Red Soma answered. "Passed out in his room."

"Well of course he is. Your stupid ghost story kept the poor child from sleeping a wink last night." Blue Yoko scolded. Unbeknownst to her, it was her version of the story that kept Pink Soma up all night.

"Oh... well then I suppose it's better for Al to stay behind and watch over him." Jonathan shrugged. He wasn't sure how reliable Blue Yoko could be in battle and he knew Red Soma couldn't be trusted when it came to actively protecting another life.

Then it finally dawned on the boy that his only partner for this mission was the White Shanoa. Another woman.

White Shanoa had somehow made her way past Jonathan and was waiting by the door. As soon as she saw the boy turn to her, she nodded. "It is just the two of us. Please take care of me." She said with an awkward bow before heading into the next car.

In an instant, Red Soma was standing next to Jonathan, nudging him in the side. "Wooooooooh... looks like you two will be busy together."

The boy nodded. "Depending on how this goes, it could take all night..."

"Wow! And here I was worried about you. My little noob is finally becoming a man..." Red Soma nearly choked on his tears. Jonathan gave him a confused look, and received another communications radio. "Take this. It should be useful if you, the master of banging, take it with you."

"I'm understanding you less and less." Jonathan sighed. He pocketed the radio and hurried after White Shanoa.

* * *

The next car was identical to the last. Rows of seats on either side, red carpeting rolled out in the center, and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. This particular room looked more torn up than the last though.

"You could be a little less awkward about what you said back there," Jonathan told the woman as he caught up. White Shanoa looked at him, nodded, and continued towards the other end of the car. "Crap... not this silent treatment again."

"I'll take care of you too," The woman finally said.

Jonathan stopped and looked at the woman for a moment. He wasn't sure why, but the comment made him feel embarrassed inside. Thankfully no one was around to hear it.

"Wooooooooooooooh!"

Almost.

"Soma! Get out of here!" Jonathan yelled back at the door, noticing a figure was pressed against it. The older boy flipped the bird and disappeared back into the room. "Jeeze... why is no one normal around here...?"

"Normal?" White Shanoa questioned. "Am I not normal?"

"What? No! I mean yes, you are normal! I mean uhh... aw hell." The boy sighed. White Shanoa carefully stepped over the broken glass of a window that was shattered. Jonathan followed her while thinking of the right words to say to her. "You're better than the others!"

"Am I?" The woman responded as they entered the next car.

It was similar to the last two, but had a slightly lower ceiling and a set of stairs at the back of the car near the doors.

"Well I mean the others are pretty weird. I've never met people who acted as strange as they do."

"You shouldn't talk about your friends like that. We are all different in our own unique ways, and as long as we do not mean any harm, I welcome the diversity." White Shanoa lectured.

"You're starting to sound like Al," Jonathan inwardly sighed. "and I didn't mean it in a bad way."

"Let us check upstairs." The woman said as she climbed the staircase towards the back of the car.

Upstairs were a small number of private rooms. Similar to the rooms the boys used to change out of their clothes, only larger to accommodate more space. These rooms were likely for employees who had to make overnight journeys or high paying passengers.

"This must've been one fancy train." Jonathan thought aloud, rubbing his chin. "Would've been nice to take a ride in one of these."

The boy noticed that White Shanoa had returned downstairs. He quickly followed her into the next car.

A flight of stairs was the first thing to greet them as they opened the door. Off to the side was a smaller hallway with a door that was labeled for employee entry only. The duo made their way upstairs to a large single room, in the fashion of a lounge. There was a mini bar off to the side and various tables and chairs scattered throughout the room. One of the windows near the bar had an emergency escape ladder to the outside of the train.

Jonathan and White Shanoa observed various corpses that littered the room among the toppled chairs and tables. Long since deceased, but strangely did not stink of rotten meat.

Heading back downstairs and through the employee's only path, the two entered the kitchen section of the dinning car. Dirty pots and pans were carelessly piled into the sink. The floor was covered in filth from dried up soup and spoiled bits of food.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jonathan noticed White Shanoa shiver. The sight of near countless cockroaches crawling along the floor and all over the discarded dish plates made the woman's skin crawl.

"You going to be okay?" The boy asked as he moved to stomp on the critters.

In a flash, White Shanoa pulled him back. "Stop! What are you doing?"

The boy was taken back. He was moving to help her out. "If I crush the bugs, you won't feel so grossed out."

She shook her head. "No. You should not take an innocent creature's life like that. They are but another of God's creations, scavenging for food."

Jonathan felt the need to comment about how over zealous she was, but bit his tongue and changed subject. "So what should I do? Doesn't look like you want to move-"

The boy was interrupted as the woman climbed onto his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. "Carry me. It is that simple."

"_**WOOOOOOOOOOOH!"**_

"_God dammit..." _Jonathan silently cursed, hearing Red Soma holler through the radio tucked away in his pocket. He adjusted the woman on his back and slowly advanced through the kitchen. He heeded White Shanoa's requests to avoid stepping on the bugs, which was easier said than done as they swarmed around his feet.

As he carried her, Jonathan suddenly felt a small sense of nostalgia crept into his mind. He used to carry a certain someone around on his back when they were kids. It was always fun for the two children, and the boy would never openly admit that he was slightly heartbroken when his friend claimed to be too old for such an act.

It also didn't help that the woman on his back was dressed as a nun. It wasn't as much of a nostalgic rush, but it certainly felt like a lot of time had passed since that particular quest.

"Almost there..." The Shanoa whispered into his ear, snapping him out of his memories.

As the two approached the door, Jonathan slowly let White Shanoa off his back. The boy peeked back at the army of bugs behind them, and then caught sight of the refrigerator. The door was wide open, revealing a corpse that was partially devoured by rodents and insects of all kinds.

Jonathan felt his stomach churn at the sight and quickly looked away. It was not something one would want to see in a kitchen of all places.

* * *

The moment the pair stepped into the next car, they knew something was wrong.

It was the same kind of car that they were in previous, with the rows of seats, rugs, and other fancy decorative items placed about-Only this room looked to be completely untouched.

The two vampire hunters exchanged a concerned look. Jonathan quickly approached the spotless windows and peered outside. Instead of a terrible thunder storm, he saw that the sky was a crisp blue with the sun shinning proudly. The forest itself looked more green, more livelier than what he remembered.

Suddenly a man coughed rather loudly. "Excuse me?"

Jonathan tore his eyes away from the window to notice a man was sitting to his left. The boy quickly backed away, finally noticing that he was leaning over a passenger. "Where'd... you come... from..." He trailed off as he finally noticed that the passenger car was in fact full of people.

"This is odd," White Shanoa said as she examined the strange people in their seats. No one paid the two any attention, except for when Jonathan would poke someone on the cheek to check if they were real.

They certainly felt real.

"What on earth is going on?" Jonathan asked, presumably to his partner.

White Shanoa merely shrugged and turned back. "We should check on the others."

"But what about the vampire?"

"It can wait. I am more concerned with the others," She spoke.

"Well... I guess I can't argue with you there." Jonathan lowered himself down onto one knee and motioned for the girl to climb onto his back once more.

After White Shanoa made herself comfortable, the two made their way towards the kitchen, only to find that it too looked to be as if it was brand new. The boy promptly let the girl down from his back. Despite the small kitchen crew running about, no one lifted a finger to stop them from roaming.

The two retraced their steps, finding all of the previous train cars they traveled through to suddenly be revitalized like the rest. When they finally arrived back in the first passenger car, they knew something was seriously wrong.

"Everyone is gone," White Shanoa stated clearly.

"Yeah, I've noticed," Jonathan responded. He went to check the rooms ahead to see if they had retreated there, but there was also no sign of them. The boy did one last check into his room, only to find that his belongings were missing as well.

"Did you find them?" White Shanoa asked. Seeing the gloomy expression on his face as he returned to her answered her question clearly. "This is troubling."

Frustrated, Jonathan sank into the nearest chair. He had recently stated that riding a luxurious train would be nice, but now he was wishing he was back in the dirty old train from before.

"Perhaps time travel?" White Shanoa listed the possible reasons behind the situation they were in. It ranged from time travel, to hypnosis, to it all being a bad dream.

Jonathan snapped his fingers and quickly pulled out the communications radio from his coat pocket. "Soma? Hey Soma, can you hear me?" He shouted into the device, hoping to get a response. All he got in return was white noise. "Ah... God dammit."

"This is no excuse to take the lord's name in vain," The Shanoa scolded.

"Sorry."

* * *

"I can't hear anything anymore," Red Soma sighed. He carelessly tossed his walkie talkie into his supply bag and made himself comfortable in his chair. "Guess they wanted privacy."

"You think they're alright? Maybe we should go check on them." Green Alucard suggested. If he wasn't pinned down by the Blue Yoko, he'd gladly take himself up on that offer.

"Nah, screw'em. This old thing doesn't look like it's got anything valuable in it anyhow."

"I've been meaning to ask," Blue Yoko started, releasing Green Alucard briefly. "Where did that other handsome devil run off to?"

"Dunno," Red Soma shrugged.

Suddenly, the Black Soma's voice resonated through the radio inside the boy's carrying bag. _**"Can anyone hear me?"**_

Green Alucard went wide eyed and pointed at the bag. "Oh! There he is! He is clearly inside the bag!"

"Don't be an idiot..." The red boy grumbled as he picked up the transceiver. "What do ya want?"

_**"Expect some company," **_He warned.

As if on cue, floating skulls alit with blue flames phased through the walls of the train. The three vampire hunters jumped in surprised and formed together, ready for combat as more ghosts seeped into the room.

As if the Black Soma knew what everyone was about to ask, he once again spoke through the radio. _**"Ghosts. It seems the train has become aware of our presence."**_

"What? Say that again?" Red Soma shouted as he swung his axe at a ghost. "What do ya mean the train became aware?"

"He means the train is alive!" Green Alucard shouted while attacking large yellow ghosts that carried lanterns of fire.

"Bullcrap! It's a ghost train!"

"Then maybe the train is not alive?" Alucard pondered, holding up his shield to guard against thrown lanterns.

"So the train is the opposite of alive. It's a dead train."

_**"Will you idiots shut up?" **_Black Soma's voice roared over the radio. _**"The train has a will of its own. It's likely that Castlevania's taint has reached it in this old forest."**_

"So this train is possessed by like a ghost or something?" Red Soma asked. He nimbly side stepped a single ghost that was flying straight at him.

_**"Whatever helps you to understand the situation better. Our presence on this train has summoned the departed spirits of the dead."**_

"That means my story was true!" Blue Yoko said as she continued to search through her belongings for the Belnades Staff. "Eat it, Soma!"

_**"I am almost to the front of the train, but I've run into some resistance. It is likely that the foe behind it all is waiting there."**_

Blue Yoko smiled, finally retrieving her beloved staff from her bag. She noticed a swarm of ghosts approaching her from the window and held her palm outward. **"HOLY FLAME!"**

"Foe behind it all? What did he mean?" Red Soma asked as he fought off a Specter that had gotten too close for comfort.

"This train is a long ways away from Castlevania," Blue Yoko explained. "For an entire train to become active like this on its own and to have spirits attack us like this is probably the work of a necromancer or someone with powerful dark magic."

Green Alucard looked back from his end, "You think it was the guy we saw earlier?"

"If so, then Black Soma went the wrong way. **HOLY LIGHTNING!**" Blue Yoko shouted, emitting forth several bolts of electricity that zoned in on the ghosts. "I'm going to check on the little Soma!"

* * *

The two lost vampire hunters sat together and brainstormed a way to get back to their group. It wasn't until they considered retracing their steps back through the kitchen that they noticed they weren't alone in the room.

There was a middle-aged man sitting in the very back. His hair was white and tied back into a messy ponytail, with a small beard to match. He wore a large white coat with tiger stripe patterned fur on the inside. Curled up in the seat next to him was a whip, very similar to Jonathan's own.

The pair slowly went up to the odd man, waving to get his attention. As the old man noticed the two, he squinted his eyes, seeing a blur of black for one figure, and a mix of black and white for the other figure.

"Ah! Soma! Arikado! I didn't know you two were on this train!" The man wildly exclaimed.

"Greetings," White Shanoa said as she took the old man's hand. "My name is Shanoa, and my friend here is... oh... what was your name again?"

_"She forgot?" _Jonathan's eye nearly twitched. So much for making progress. "Jonathan..."

She nodded. "Yes, Jonathan. Who might you be?"

"Oh, I'm sorry little lady," The old man stood up and bowed. "My name is... uh...?" He hesitated an answer. The younger pair briefly looked to each other before they got their answer. "Julius Belmondo."

"Belmondo-A Belmont?" Jonathan nearly jumped. "You're a Belmont?"

"The last time I checked." The old man nodded.

The boy couldn't help but feel excited. "Wow... a Belmont... a real live Belmont..." Jonathan had encountered a Belmont before, but that one was intent on kicking his ass and humiliating him in front of a couple of girls. All so he could use the stinking whip.

Worst test ever.

But now that they had a Belmont on their side, things were looking up. It suddenly felt as though the sun shone directly through the window onto the boy. Everything would be alright.

White Julius carefully picked up the curled whip in the seat next to him and examined it. "This is mine, right?" He asked in earnest.

Instantly the sunlight faded. Any concerns Jonathan had about the situation came back in full force. "Why me...?" he sighed.

"Julius, might you know of where we are?" White Shanoa asked. She wasn't so easily defeated by the lack of willpower.

White Julius took in his surroundings carefully, then answered with a confident nod, "A train."

"Do you remember how you got here?" She pressed further.

"No... can't say that I do." The old man shook his head. "All I remember is chasing some weird person through the train."

"Weird person?" Jonathan and White Shanoa spoke in unison.

"Yes, I remember chasing someone through the forest. It fled onto this train and... well I guess I got tired and took a longer nap than I expected." White Julius looked outside and smiled. "It's a nice day outside!"

Jonathan pulled White Shanoa aside for the moment. "You think this is related to that vampire?"

"Quite possibly," She nodded. "We should continue pursuing the creature at once."

**"HOLY FLAME!"**

Jonathan and White Shanoa turned around at the sound of the voice. Oddly enough, Yoko's voice echoed through the room, but the woman was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly both doors to the car flew open. The passengers of the train slowly filed in, one by one, each armed with a weapon in their hands.

"That doesn't look good..." Jonathan instinctively uncoiled the whip from his belt. He motioned for White Julius to do the same, then over to White Shanoa to prepare herself. However, he noticed that the woman was slowly advancing upon the crowd with a small smile. "What are you doing?"

"Greetings," The woman said, bowing to them. "Sorry for the inconvenience, but my friend and I need to get through you."

Her words fell on deaf ears. The closest man raised a bottle up in preparation to smash it over the woman's head. As he brought it down, Jonathan quickly leapt in front of the bowing Shanoa and raised his arms up in defense, letting the bottle shatter on him.

Wincing slightly at the pain, Jonathan kicked the attacker in the gut, sending him tumbling back into the other crazed passengers. "You need to be more careful!" Jonathan scolded the woman, rubbing his sore arm.

"I... I'm sorry," The woman said, watching as the assaulters slowly recovered. "I didn't sense any ill intent in them."

"You don't need to sense anything when you can clearly see that they aren't happy." Jonathan spoke as he prepared for the wave of attackers coming from the opposite end of the car. He felt White Shanoa tense up behind him and immediately knew what the issue was. "Don't tell me..."

"I'm sorry," The woman apologized from behind. "I cannot bring myself to harm these people."

**"HOLY LIGHTNING!"**

_"Great." _The boy sighed. He switched sides to face the group in front of Shanoa again, as they were closer to her and blocked the path they needed to go. He carefully aimed his whip strikes, smacking the weapons out of the crazy mob's hands and temporarily stunning them with pain. Although the situation was becoming increasingly bizarre, their foe wasn't gifted with inhuman strength.

Jonathan put all of his weight into a fierce tackle, bowling down the group of crazed passengers. He quickly recovered to his feet and pulled White Shanoa along to the door. "Julius! Let's go!"

White Julius, who had had just finished packing his belongings, quickly followed. As the three got into the next car, they were greeted with another pack of crazed train passengers.

"Omnia-vanitas!"

In an instant, White Julius disappeared into in a blur. The next moment, the old man was behind the mob, striking each one down with his whip and easily clearing a path.

_"Wow, that was cool!" _Jonathan would say, if he didn't also receive a whip lash to the face. The boy yelped in pain and got closer to the old man. "Julius! It's ME!"

"Oh, sorry about that, Jason." White Julius apologized.

The trio continued through the train.

* * *

"So, um, these ghosts won't stop coming." Green Alucard said. He guarded the north exit door as Blue Yoko came through, carrying a still sleeping Pink Soma.

Out of the corner of his eye, Red Soma noticed that the train was passing by the trees at an increased rate. He paused to pull out his radio once more. "Yo Blackey, what's goin on? Is the train movin faster?"

_**"Perhaps."**_

"Well don't you seem calm about it..." Red Soma commented to himself, although loudly at that.

_**"I'm almost to the front. I'll call back later."**_

"Yeah, sure... we'll just sit here and kill ghosts for a couple more hours. It's fine, I don't need to sleep."

* * *

The three vampire hunters had just managed to make their way through the kitchen and back to where they originally started. The only thing blocking their path now was not another gathering of crazed passengers, but a solid brick wall.

"This doesn't even make sense!" Jonathan complained as he pressed against the wall to confirm if it was real. "Now what do we do?"

"You think there's food in here?" White Julius wondered. He turned his attention away from the approaching enemies and began whipping the brick wall, much to Jonathan's dismay.

White Shanoa was deep in thought, recalling a story she had heard from the night before. "A train... do you think it could be the work of Castlevania?"

"Well I don't know of any other force of evil around here." Jonathan answered honestly.

"If so, then maybe Yoko's story is a clue. Where we are is trapped inside a realm caused by Castlevania's magic."

"What, like being inside a painting?" Jonathan's eyes were then drawn to the growing crowd of pursing foes. "Shanoa, if you've got a way out of this, you better tell us fast!"

"The church has always taught me that in order to dispel dark magic from the vicinity, we must set forth holy relics." White Shanoa removed a couple of crosses from her belt and casually walked around the room, setting them at different places. "Allow me to make the room more appropriate for the ritual. It will only take a few minutes."

"Shanoa!" Jonathan couldn't believe that the woman was taking her time with her solution. He held the train door shut, blocking the crowd of angry passengers in the kitchen.

Suddenly a strange feeling came over him. An idea came to him that was just crazy enough to work. As if it also read his mind, the Vampire Killer in his hand began to glow blue.

Looking over, he saw that White Julius' whip was glowing the ethereal color. "Julius, I need your help! I think I know how to get out of here!"

White Julius stopped and nodded, also understanding from the strange feeling he felt inside. In an instant, both men jumped to the center of the room and crossed their respective Vampire Killers together.

The surge of power overflowing from the whips coursed through both of their bodies and outward. The ground beneath their feet glowed with a bright light. The title of such an attack instantly popped up in their minds. A command they shouted together in unison to release the power.

**"HOLY CROSS!"**

As the call echoed, the light from beneath their bodies shone brightly, releasing several large crosses. The passengers were blinded by the purifying light and retreated back into the kitchen. A large hole was blasted into the roof as the crosses traveled upward. The train slowly lost color and scenery, reverting back to its old worn down state. The light under the two whip users slowly dimmed out as the last cross flew skyward into the clouds.

"What was that?" White Shanoa asked, amazed by what she saw. "You used God's power!"

"I wouldn't go that far. I actually don't know what it was or how we did it. It just sort've came to me." Jonathan explained. He and White Julius stepped out from under the open hole in the ceiling that was pouring down rain. "Actually the technique is called a Dual Crush, but I never imagined it'd work with anyone other than my usual partner."

White Shanoa nodded as if she understood. "I see... whatever it was, it succeeded in nullifying the dark spell in the area."

"Hey, my wall meat is gone." White Julius said, pointing down the room. Jonathan and White Shanoa noticed that the room they were in was not another passenger car, but instead a cargo room. Piles of boxes and broken animal cages were tossed about. This was the car where a passenger's luggage or pets would go.

A cloaked figure was hunched over in the corner of the room, surrounded by destroyed suitcases and torn clothes. White Shanoa approached the figure carefully from behind. "This might be the vampire. Let me handle this."

The figure reacted to the sound of the woman's voice and turned to face them quickly. From beneath the hood of the cloak were two glowing yellow eyes.

"Shanoa," Jonathan called, a bad feeling running through his body. "I think you should get back."

The figure slowly stepped into the illumination of the moonlight that shone through the hole in the ceiling. The robes fell off, revealing a beast covered in fur from head to toe. Blood mixed with salvia dripped from his drooling mouth.

"A werewolf!" White Shanoa gasped, taking a step away from the creature.

"Where?" White Julius squinted. "I don't see a wolf."

Suddenly the beast's body began to grow in size, nearly tripling that of the average man. The creature's biceps looked to be larger than a human's head, and the claws looked sharper than the finest sword. The canine's fangs also grew in size, displaying a row of razor sharp teeth as the beast growled at the vampire hunters.

Jonathan's eyes were as wide as saucers. He had encountered a creature similar to this before in his last adventure, but nothing of this size. "What's going on? Why's he getting bigger?"

White Shanoa pointed at the swirling mass of black mist around the monster's feet. "He's absorbing dark magic residue. Likely what remained after the Holy Cross Dual Crush."

The great werewolf let out a powerful howl, one that was powerful enough in sound waves alone to knock the three hunters off their feet. The beast then lunged at the group. The trio quickly separated as the werewolf landed on their location, and attacked his backside. The wolf howled and blindly swung his claws behind him, nailing White Julius and sending him into a wall.

White Shanoa held her palm out and emitted a steady beam of light into the wolf's face. The Nitesco beam succeeded in stopping the werewolf's advance on the downed White Julius, but also turned his attention to the woman.

Jonathan noticed the great werewolf slowly pushing his way through the Nitesco spell. He quickly reached into his coat... only to find nothing. "What?" Jonathan cursed as he felt around his waist for his belts.

He had left all of his subweapons with his original coat.

Improvising, the boy ran to the side of the wolf and struck him in the face with his whip. "Hey you stupid mutt, why don't you go after something with some more meat on its bones?" Jonathan questioned the words that left his mouth. Had he really said that?

However, this succeeded in drawing the werewolf's attention. The beast roared again, knocking White Shanoa out of her spell casting state, and swung at Jonathan. The boy ducked and avoided nearly losing his head. The frenzied wolf swiped furiously with his claws. Jonathan kept pace with his dodging, but was slowly backed into the corner of the cargo room. The boy cursed silently to himself once he felt the wall to his back and could no longer backdash from the claws. He managed to shift his weight to the side to avoid the beast's overhead strike. The claws made a deep slice into the metal wall, splitting it apart under the nails.

At this time White Julius had finally recovered. He withdrew a couple of daggers from his belt and threw them into the werewolf's back, drawing his attention away from the younger boy. With great speed, the monster leapt at White Julius, who promptly met the beast with an uppercut.

Despite taking the Belmont's fist to the jaw, the Great Werewolf shrugged off the blow and grabbed the man out of the air. "Uh oh-" Was all White Julius had a chance to utter before he was unceremoniously thrown. The man went flying through the car doors, through the kitchen, and into the seating rooms.

"Jonathan," Shanoa stated, holding out her two red confodere sabers. "Do you think you can pull off this Dual Crush ability again?"

"I can try. It might be our only chance." The boy nodded as he held the Vampire Killer ready. Before they could synchronize their respective energy levels, the werewolf took notice of them and howled. The monster picked up a large animal crate and threw it at the two.

Alarmed, Jonathan quickly pushed away White Shanoa, who had her back turned to the wolf for the Dual Crush. He succeeded in saving the woman, but was in turn crushed under the weight of the metal cage.

White Shanoa gasped. She hurried over an attempted to lift the cage off of the boy. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Jonathan coughed, "just help Julius..." he pointed at the werewolf, who had lost interest and pursued the old man. White Shanoa reluctantly did as she was told and ran to assist her other comrade. Fortunately for her, the bugs of the kitchen scurried away from the commotion, letting her freely travel into the passenger room.

Jonathan summoned all of his strength to lift the dirty cage off of him. The boy lay on the ground, breathing heavily. He was cold, wet, hungry, and in a lot of pain. Nothing sounded better than his nice warm bed and a hot meal.

"Gotta stay focused," The boy told himself, "Or I'll never see this through." He slowly stood up, using the wall for support. The giant cage had done a number to his ribs and it made breathing a little harder than usual.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jonathan noticed a large purple chest. It was presumably hidden among the supplies,. but was finally revealed during the fight. The boy carefully made his way over and pried open the chest, gazing upon the prize it held inside.

"Hey, I recognize this thing..." The boy spoke in amazement. He quickly grabbed the chain and wrapped it around the palm of his left hand. It would come in handy for the boss.

_**"I'll see what I can do now." **_A voice emanated from the boy's coat.

Confused, Jonathan reached in to find the radio that the Red Soma had given him before they split apart. "Hello?"

_**"You... so you finally respond?" **_Black Soma's voice sounded uneasy, yet relieved at the same time. _**"Brace yourself, the ride is going to get bumpy."**_

"Tell me about it. What's going on exactly? Is the train going faster?" Jonathan questioned as he slowly made his way into the kitchen. From the tiny window over the sink, he noticed trees passing by at blinding speed.

_**"Yes. I'm in the engine car now. I'll see what I can do. If worst comes to worst-" **_The voice suddenly ended, as though cut off.

Jonathan entered into passenger seating room, where he found the two white clad vampire hunters in battle against the Great Werewolf. What caught his eye more than the giant frenzied wolf, if one could believe that possible, was the presence of multiple ghosts floating about the room.

"Great... ghosts..." The boy absent-mindedly reached for his belt. "Oh, dammit."

The ghosts began to slowly swarm around Jonathan, who promptly dispatched them with a twirl of the Vampire Killer. It wasn't an overly effective use of the whip, but it served as a great tool for keeping weak creatures at bay.

White Julius kept his whipping focused on the Great Werewolf, striking the large arms and chest. White Shanoa kept pace with a barrage of Ignis and Fulgur spells from afar. The damage was beginning to show through the wolf's thick fur, revealing bloody gashes and burnt skin.

The rabid beast lunged at the two hunters again, and actually managed to pin down the Julius. The Shanoa leapt back into action with a continuous stream of Nitesco. The beams were directed at the werewolf's eyes, blinding it completely as it focused on the captured prey. White Julius shifted his body left and right, barely avoiding the blind strikes by the werewolf. Jonathan, who had finally dealt with the remaining spirits, delivered a swift knee strike into the wolf's side. The force was enough for White Julius to free himself from under the werewolf's foot and retreat.

The Great Werewolf leapt to the opposite end of the room and glared. Despite receiving a beating from the three hunters, the beast was still in prime condition to fight.

Suddenly the werewolf let forth another powerful howl. The three vampire hunters kept their balance this time, however were surprised to hear multiple howls follow. Suddenly dozens of large, frenzied wolves leapt through the windows of the train car, landing between the hunters and the werewolf.

"Wolves," White Julius stated the obvious.

"Thank you," Jonathan sighed. "How could this get any worse?"

_**"Tunnel ahead," **_came Black Soma's voice. _**"Be careful."**_

"Oh you have got to be-" Jonathan was cut off when the train entered into the tunnel, flooding the car with darkness. "-kidding me."

"Uh oh, did my vision go out again?"

Jonathan chose to ignore White Julius in favor of the series of growling. Suddenly the boy yelped in pain, feeling teeth sink into his arm. He threw the wolf off his arm, only to have another jump on his back and bite into his shoulder.

The wolves were attacking in darkness. The three vampire hunters did what they could in completely darkness, but were outmatched. White Shanoa tried her best to illuminate the room with Luminatio spells, but those only briefly shed light into the room.

The trio separated to avoid accidentally striking one another. The wolves had surrounded each vampire hunter but were less successful with surprise attacks. White Julius whipped the wolves as they came, a single strike being enough to dispatch his foes. White Shanoa had the leisure of her light spell providing her cover from all attacks. Jonathan guarded against claws and teeth and retaliated with his own whip. It was painful, but his lack of sub weaponry and strength of the whip left him few options.

The snapping of wood drew the boy's attention. Through the darkness, Jonathan could see the Great Werewolf's eyes glowing. With a flash of Luminatio, he spotted the werewolf had pulled an entire bench from the floor.

The room went dark again, just as the monster threw the seat. Jonathan held his arms up and braced for impact, only to feel nothing.

Did he miss?

The sudden stop of Luminatio flow answered the question. "Shanoa, are you okay?"

The woman didn't answer.

Jonathan carefully made his way over to her last location, fighting off wolves in the process. The sound of White Julius's grunts and whip smacks seemed closer, signifying that he would be safe for the moment.

"Shanoa, you okay?" Jonathan called again. He fished into his pockets, only to grow increasingly frustrated. "I've got to get my old clothes back..."

Suddenly the darkness left the room. The train had finally exited the tunnel.

With his vision returned, Jonathan quickly located White Shanoa. The woman was crushed under the weight of the large bench, but not only that. The impact of the thrown object knocked her into the wall, as evidenced by the large indention. The woman was unconscious with a steady stream of blood trickling down from her forehead.

Jonathan summoned all of his strength to lift the bench. It was certainly heavy, but the boy was able to move it enough. With the crushing weight gone, Jonathan carefully repositioned White Shanoa from her spot against the wall, being especially careful with her head and neck.

The Great Werewolf howled, drawing the boy's attention again. Instead of continuing to attack, the giant wolf instead retreated back into the previous car. A new pack of wolves leapt through the broken windows.

"Oh no you don't..." Jonathan said as the grip on the whip tightened. He wasn't going to let that monster escape and run loose, especially after hurting his friend. "Julius, think you can watch over Shanoa for me?"

White Julius nodded. The man was more skilled at slaying the wolves with a single strike, leaving him as the number one candidate for defending the unconscious woman. "Who is Shanoa?"

Well almost...

"The woman right next to you!" Jonathan shouted as he carefully made his way back down the car. He knee'd a lone wolf that dared to attack him.

"Her? I thought her name was Rinoa..."

Jonathan left at that last comment, deciding to save his rage for the werewolf. Rather than the kitchen, he ran upstairs, following the claw marks along the walls.

Waiting for him in the bar lounge was the Great Werewolf.

"Cornered, huh? Now there is no escape!" Jonathan grinned. His mind was screaming at him for how crazy he was being. Normally his reckless attitude would be kept in check by his logical partner, but now he was left on his own to regret his actions. _"Taking on a monster this powerful by yourself? You're insane!"_

Maybe he should've gone back to ask the others for help. But if he had done that, the werewolf would have likely escaped. This course of action was the best he could do.

The Great Werewolf howled and lunged at Jonathan. The boy nimbly rolled forward under the beast. Drawing power from the unlocked Vampire Killer, Jonathan struck the wolf's back with fiery lashes. The werewolf yelped in pain from the divine strikes of the holy whip.

The werewolf turned and began swiping his large claws at the hunter. Jonathan carefully ducked and jumped over the attacks as necessary, and returned the treatment with more powered up whip strikes.

The werewolf leapt to the other side of the bar and began throwing barstools and tables. These objects didn't present the same danger that a giant steel cage did, so Jonathan dodged them with ease.

_"He's getting desperate," _Jonathan observed, _"I guess I should use my secret weapon."_

Suddenly the Great Werewolf let forth a resounding roar. Jonathan was knocked over by the sheer force of the sound. Taking this chance, the werewolf pounced onto the downed boy and pinned him down with one claw.

"Aw shit!" Jonathan bluntly cursed as the great beast brought his mouth down. The hunter brought his arms out by reflex and attempted to hold the wolf's jaw open. The werewolf drooled over the boy as he brought his mouth ever closer, struggling to snap it shut over his head.

Jonathan's strength was beginning to struggle over the werewolf's. The razor sharp teeth nearly punctured his hands, and the breath was foul beyond words. He had to think fast before he lost his head.

It was then that Jonathan noticed a broken beer bottle by his side. A crazy idea popped into his head that he was just desperate enough to try. It would take fast reflexes to pull this off, or the vampire hunter would lose his life right there.

"Here goes nothing!" Jonathan quickly released his hold on the werewolf's mouth and reached over. He gripped the base of the broken beer bottle and quickly brought it up into the werewolf's open mouth. With all of his might, he thrust the shattered glass forward, stabbing it into the monster's tongue.

It worked. The Great Werewolf yelped and whimpered in pain as he jumped away from Jonathan, desperately clawing at its own mouth. Blood was beginning to drip from between the werewolf's teeth.

Jonathan quickly got to his feet. He took a quick glance at his hands and noticed they were beginning to bleed. It stung to grip the Vampire Killer tightly, but he did so and readied for the next attack.

The Great Werewolf glared at the black coated hunter long and hard before turning to the closest window. The creature threw one last table through it, shattering it completely. Jonathan quickly ran over in his attempt to stop the escape, but the wolf leapt through.

He was too slow. Jonathan cursed, but then realized that the werewolf climbed to the top of the train. That nagging voice in his head screamed again, telling him that this was suicidal.

Against his better judgment, Jonathan chose to ignore the voice of wisdom. He located the window near the back of the bar that held the emergency ladder. Jonathan carefully climbed out of the window and used the ladder to climb to the top of the train.

Now THIS was suicidal.

The rain poured hard and the wind was just as furious, though Jonathan had to guess this was from the train moving as fast as it was. The roof of the train car was slick from the rain. Jonathan slowly moved forward, careful not to slip and fall off. Up ahead he noticed that the Great Werewolf was hanging onto the edges of the train car for dear life.

It was when Jonathan finally looked overboard that he realized why the wolf hadn't simply jumped down. The train was passing over a long bridge. The drop into a river with jagged rocks did not look pleasant.

"Just... my luck..." The boy absentmindedly laughed. He was soaked to the core and freezing, but none of that mattered. He continued his advance slowly towards the werewolf, who was now aware of his presence. The beast growled and ran at him, swiping his claw as he lunged.

Jonathan gasped and quickly held up his guard, taking the scratch to his arms. The werewolf practically bowled into him, due to the speed of the train. Both Jonathan and the Great Werewolf went tumbling over the sides of the train car. The boy held onto the edge of the roof for dear life. The stinging pain in his hands and arms was getting harder to ignore.

Jonathan quickly pulled himself back up onto the roof. To his right he noticed that the werewolf was also holding on for dear life, and struggling to pull itself up. "This is my chance!" The hunter thought as he slowly uncoiled the chain from his left hand. He gripped the length tightly with his right hand and began to swing it overhead.

"Showtime!" The hunter shouted as a large spiked ball materialized at the end of the chain. The wrecking ball was massive in both weight and power; however, to Jonathan it felt weightless. Whether it was due to an imbued magic spell on the subweapon, or the boy's inner strength, he never questioned how he was able to swing around such a heavy object with ease.

The Great Werewolf was slowly climbing back onto the train car, unaware of the boy's new subweapon. Jonathan swung the wrecking ball over head around and around until it gained enough speed. With one final swing, the spiked ball collided into the werewolf's chest, puncturing it with its multiple spikes and sending the beast flying off of the train.

"Have a nice death!" Jonathan shouted out to the beast as it fell.

He did it. He managed to defeat the enemy all on his own! He then realized too late that he was still holding onto the chain of the wrecking ball.

The wrecking ball that went overboard with the wolf.

Before he could react, Jonathan was yanked off the train. He finally let go of the wrecking ball chain, but what good would that do him now that he was falling to his death? Below him, Jonathan could see the Great Werewolf finally land into the ravine, undoubtedly dying from the impact. "Crap, this is it then..." He inwardly sighed. He shut his eyes and awaited his end. Would it be painful? Jonathan never really thought about what it was like to die from falling.

"I've got you." A voice spoke. Jonathan's eyes shot open to find White Shanoa. "I won't let you go."

The boy realized that he was suspended in mid-air. How did she save him, he wondered. He then blushed furiously when he felt the soaking wet Shanoa embracing him tightly. Her face was so close to his that it made him uncomfortable, yet happy. Her nun's habit blew off of her head from the wind, revealing her long raven colored hair.

"W-What's going on? How are we flying?" Jonathan asked in an effort to keep his mind off such thoughts.

Before she could answer, White Shanoa noticed the cliff side was rapidly approaching. The two were slowly lifted up and out of the cliff, just as the bridge ended. Jonathan could see a bright glow emanating from the woman's back. What was this power?

Just as the two slowly floated over to the train, Jonathan spotted a figure dressed in black atop the train. It was too distant to identify however, and the mysterious figure vanished. The two hunters then carefully flew into the hole in the window caused by the werewolf.

* * *

Once they were back inside the bar lounge, White Shanoa let the boy go. Somewhere inside, Jonathan had to admit he felt a bit disappointed that the moment did not last, but at the same time he was glad to be back on solid ground again. "So... what was that?"

"We were fortunate that the train had magnet points located around the outside." White Shanoa explained, looking back outside. "I was able to utilize my magnes ability and save you."

"M-Magnes?" Jonathan shivered. He really didn't understand what the woman was talking about, but assumed it was a witchcraft spell. "Either way, thanks for saving me. Guess I was being a little too crazy."

White Shanoa shook her head, "No need to thank me, I wanted to save you. If I had lost you, I do not know what I would have done."

Jonathan gulped. Why was she saying things like that? She definitely wasn't so friendly towards him earlier in the day.

_**"Can anyone hear me?" **_Black Soma's voice came through the radio again.

Jonathan took the radio out of his pocket and responded, just as White Julius joined the two in the bar. "Yeah, I hear you."

_**"Get off the train immediately," **_He warned.

The trio looked at each other in concerned. "What do you mean?"

_**"The train is on a collision course with a building up ahead. There's no way to stop it."**_

"Whoa, what?"

_**"I've been trying to slow the train down, but nothing responds. Worse yet... now I'm locked inside the engine car by some sort of spell." **_Black Soma spoke. Everyone knew what this meant. _**"Get off the train while you still can. There's not much time left."**_

White Shanoa headed for the stairs with White Julius. "I'll tell the others."

Jonathan nodded to her and returned his attention to the radio. "Soma, are you sure there's no escape? Maybe I could climb over from the outside?"

_**"There's no time left." **_The man sighed_**. "Listen Jonathan, this is the end for me. You'll have to see to it that the rest of the mission is carried out."**_

"But-"

_**"Do not argue with me. Find a way off this train now." **_The man ordered.

Jonathan sighed. Although the man was hardly around to directly help him, it was crushing to hear that one of his teammates had given up and accepted death.

He approached the large hole in the wall and gazed out, seeing the forest pass by wildly. How exactly would he get off the train? Jumping would have to suffice. It'd hurt, but he'd been through worse already.

_**"One last thing," **_Black Soma's voice chimed in again. _**"If you find your friend, don't let her out of your sight."**_

"What?" Jonathan responded in surprise. "What do you mean?"

_**"It hurts to lose someone you love. Don't make the same mistake I did."**_

Black Soma's last words echoed in his mind. Mistake? Jonathan wanted to ask more, but another voice came through the radio. _**"Hey noob, can you hear me?"**_

It was the Red Soma. "Yeah, I can hear you."

_**"Hey, we're jumping out now while we still can. Hurry up and get your butt over here!"**_

"Just go, I'll jump from over here." Jonathan said. He pocketed the radio and stepped up to the hole in the wall. "Bye, Soma." he uttered before jumping.

The boy landed in a large body of water. Jonathan quickly surfaced to find himself in a lake located near a large mansion. The mansion looked to be twice the size of the Puppet Master's, and had strange paint markings all across the outer walls. He looked over in time to see the train just as it disappeared. The train vanished into the large tunnel located underneath the mansion. Seconds later, the horrible sound of a crash, followed by the flames of an explosion blew out of the tunnel.

Jonathan quickly swam to land and collapsed onto his back. The rain had finally stopped, which he was thankful for. Although the sky was still covered in grey clouds, signs of daylight poked through the openings. They train incident had lasted throughout the night.

Jonathan sighed. His body was wet, cold, and littered with cuts and scars. He was hungry, in pain, and tired.

"Damn... this sucks..." He remarked as his eyelids forced themselves shut.

**End of Chapter 3**

* * *

Did you enjoy the surprise original chapter? My reasoning behind this was that suddenly having the group in hell fighting Menace of all creatures would be hard to plot... at least correctly. Instead I substituted an original chapter that would hopefully transition cleanly into Chapter 4. I drew some inspiration from Resident Evil: Zero, Uncharted 2, and Final Fantasy Six for this train chapter.

What does this mean for the real Chapter 3: The End of Chaos? It'll come... much later in the story. It holds an important plot point for me.

Now comes the trivia. First, let me reveal the answers for Chapter 2's trivia.

_**Question 1: **__Pink Soma unknowingly discovered his first weapon. What is this weapon?_

**Answer 1: **The Terror Bear.

_**Question 2: **__Jonathan receives a subweapon from the shop. Can you actually buy subweapons from the shop in game?_

**Answer 2: **Yes. Although not the grenade subweapon, you can buy R. Dagger and R. Axe from the shop, provided you have DLC of course.

_**Question 3: **__White Shanoa's outfit is not what she usually wears. Where does her alternate outfit come from?_

**Answer 3: **Castlevania Judgment. I liked her alt, leave me alone. (I also liked Cornell's)

_**Question 4: **Jonathan and Red Soma should've been inflicted with a status ailment during the boss fight. What status ailment, and why would they get it?_

**Answer 4: **Cursed. Coming into contact with the Puppet Master's dolls will curse you. I purposely left that out because... well... curse is hard to justify for non-spellcasters.

_**Question 5: **__What is the significant irony of Hammer being included into the story?_

**Answer 5: **Unused Harmony of Despair voice clips were found, revealing that Hammer from the Sorrow series was planned as future DLC. Unfortunately, like Dawn of Sorrow, he was ultimately cut.

As of 7/12/2011, Chapter 2 Trivia guesses are no longer accepted. I was very impressed that few of you got 5!

Now for Chapter 3's Trivia Questions~

**Question 1: **Jonathan's look changes in this chapter. Was this one of his alternate color options?

**Question 2: **Several enemies appear to attack our heroes. What enemies from Harmony of Despair specifically appear in this chapter?

**Question 3: **Despite being separated, Jonathan, White Shanoa, and White Julius could hear Blue Yoko. What is this a nod to?

**Question 4: **What level was Jonathan's new subweapon?

**Question 5: **Despite never being truly utilized, Harmony of Despair features a weapon designed specifically for the boss of this chapter. What is this weapon called?

Again, post your answers as part of your review! I appreciate reviews very much! They fuel my drive to continue this story! So if you read and enjoy this little fic, take a couple minutes out of your busy life to leave a review. :3

Until Chapter 4...


	4. Chapter 4: Esquisse of Violence

In celebration of Harmony of Despair** FINALLY** being released on the PSN... Chapter 4! This chapter 4 is the game's chapter 4. Confused by what I mean? Good. This will be the last chapter in my story that matches up with the game... yeah, you'll know what I mean by the end of it. Esquisse of Violence has a lot of... violence in it, so I hope you're content with fight scenes. Thank you again to all my readers and especially reviewers out there. Also don't embarrass yourself with an anonymous bad review. If you got some criticisms, post it with your actual account. Don't be selfish now~**  
**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Esquisse of Violence**

"Finally…" Purple Maria breathed a sigh of relief. The large artistic manor had finally come into view after days of traveling. Her previous journeys to the various vampire manors scattered throughout the lands had given her little success. Demanding loyalty from powerful vampires such as Olrox and Carmilla in a vain attempt to overthrow Dracula was not going well.

This was the last stop on Purple Maria's list; the home of the vampire Brauner. Brauner's loyalty to Dracula was definitely in question amongst the vampires, and Purple Maria knew she could make use of that. The artistic vampire was a family man at heart, so she had the advantage of posing as one of his daughters if the situation called for it.

"Almost there," the girl huffed, walking through the wet grass. "I'll just take the secret entrance…. Oh?"

It was then that the young girl spotted an unconscious man laying near the lake. He looked beaten and defeated, evidenced by his dirty blonde hair, bruised face, and cuts in his outfit.

Purple Maria snickered and strayed away from the tunnel entrance to take a closer look at the boy. He looked vaguely familiar to her, namely in the he face. Visions of the group she encountered days back flashed into her mind and the girl bit her tongue. "I hate those people!"

"Ugh…" the boy groaned slightly.

Purple Maria nearly jumped back in surprise. 'He's alive?' she wondered. She poked his cheek with her finger, curious at how conscious he really was. "Helloooo? Mister?"

She waited a solid minute for a response that never came.

Shrugging, the girl decided she would help herself to whatever goodies the boy kept with him. He wouldn't be missing them now, would he? Unfortunately the only thing she could find hidden away was a whip. What use could she have for a whip? "Bah! Useless human, not even any gold…"

"What do you think you're doing?" Jonathan half asked and half demanded. The sudden question made Purple Maria yelp, obviously not realizing he had awoken. "Don't I know you?"

Purple Maria laughed off her shock and posed with her hands on her hips. "Of course you do. I'm the great Maria Renard, soon to be ruler of all humans!"

"Oh right… the lunatic." Jonathan groaned in response. He attempted to sit up, only to be met with considerable pain.

Pain that did not go unnoticed by Purple Maria. "It looks like you're in a lot of pain, mister," she said with a devious smile. "I have half a mind to finish you off and put you out of your misery."

At those words, Jonathan found enough strength to jump to his feet. He weakly grabbed the Vampire Killer and readied himself. He was a fool to underestimate the young girl. His father had always taught him that age and gender should never be a factor when fighting the creatures of the night. Evil is evil.

Still he had his doubts. His previous run-ins with the Lecarde sisters had shown him how dangerous female vampires could be, yet this Maria girl before him did not have an air of danger around her.

Regardless, he kept his guard up.

"But," she began, "I have other uses for you." the girl said as she reached into her tiny traveling bag. She removed two small bottles containing blue liquid. Jonathan immediately recognized them. "If you pledge your allegiance to me, I'll give these to you."

"Yeah right!" the boy spat. "You think I'd surrender to a vampire like you?"

"I am offering you a chance to serve under me! You should be grateful!" Purple Maria stomped furiously. "I'm giving you my potions!"

"I would rather die."

"You **will** die," Purple Maria pointed out. "If you don't accept my offer. Is that what you want?"

Jonathan paused to think about the situation. He wasn't concerned if he would die or not. He knew the risks of entering Castlevania in the first place, especially with the Belmont's whip now released. There was little chance that he would live to see the morning after.

But if he was to die, he wanted it to be after his business was done, not during. Dracula was still around and his best friend was still missing. Those two cases needed to be settled first.

Swallowing his pride, Jonathan hesitantly accepted. "Alright… fine…"

"Fine?"

"I'll help you out." the boy sighed. In retrospect, he may have wrongly judged her. If Alucard could prove to be a friendly ally, she could too.

"Excellent!" Purple Maria laughed. "You've come to your senses! I knew not all mortals could be dim-witted idiots!"

Purple Maria handed one of her potions to Jonathan, who quickly drank the contents. Within moments he felt some strength return to him. "Now the other one…?"

"Nope! You're not getting it!" the girl denied. She placed the potion back into her bag to emphasis her point. "Not until you finish your task that is!"

"What? Come on!"

"If I gave you both potions, you wouldn't have any reason to serve me." Purple Maria said. She narrowed her eyes and pointed accusingly at the boy. "You don't look like the type of man who would keep his word."

"H-hey now.." Jonathan stumbled with his words. She was actually right on the mark with her assumption. "At least tell me what you want me to do."

Purple Maria pointed to large mansion. "You will escort me inside! I wish to speak to the master vampire that resides within!"

"Uh huh…. And that would be?"

"A vampire by the name of Brauner."

A chill ran down Jonathan's spine. "Brauner? He's here?"

Purple Maria nodded and began explaining who he was, but Jonathan didn't need to hear it. Last he remembered, Brauner was working on his final master piece that would devastate the world. Why would he be inside one of his own paintings?

The reason didn't matter. If Jonathan could slay the vampire now, then all the paintings would disappear, and Jonathan could find himself back in his own world with Charlotte. Killing two birds with one stone.

Jonathan set his sights towards the train tunnel situated underneath the mansion. Black smoke was still pouring out of it from the train wreckage hours prior. The boy ran off, leaving an unknowing Purple Maria still lost in her own long winded story of vampires.

* * *

Jonathan carefully made his way through the dark tunnel. The tunnel was thankfully large enough so that the smoke wouldn't take up so much breathing room. There was hardly any light to illuminate a path, and he swore that he passed an empty picture frame somewhere in the tunnel. Eventually the boy came across a ladder that led up to a closed ceiling hatch. Further down the tunnel was the wreckage of the train.

A grief stricken Jonathan glanced down the dark tunnel towards the still burning fires of the wreckage. Black Soma lost his life in a vain attempt to halt the train. Though he was unsuccessful, he was able to warm the others before it was too late.

Curious, Jonathan began to walk towards the destroyed train. He wasn't sure what he would find, but he had a strange feeling that he should check something out inside of it.

"Hold it!" A command voice echoed throughout the tunnel. Jonathan jumped and quickly turned to find Purple Maria, visually peeved. "How dare you ignore me!"

"Huh? Weren't you right behind me?"

"I was busy filling you in on the details of our contact!" She stomped.

"I… don't need to know about that stuff." Jonathan said. Brauner was going to be slain tonight, there was no need to hear about his shoe size or favorite color.

Purple Maria huffed and folded her arms. "I suppose you're right. A lowly man slave doesn't need to know the details." She then noticed the ladder to her left and nodded approvingly. "I see you found the secret entrance. A job well done."

"Why does this place even have a secret entrance?" The boy wondered aloud.

"It's more of a secret exit really. You know, for-"

"Forget I asked," Jonathan sighed. He took the initiative and climbed up the ladder first, pushing open the hatch at the top as he went. Above he saw what appeared to be the interior of a warehouse. Shelves of what appeared to be very old wine and canned food items were everywhere. Occasionally there was meat hanging from hooks reminiscent of a butcher shop, or a display case full of cakes. The area was very brown to say the least.

"Something about this place looks familiar…" Jonathan observed.

Purple Maria straightened out her dress after finally climbing out. "Okay! Now carry me to Brauner!" she ordered while extended her arms upwards.

Jonathan put on an even more puzzled expression. "Huh?"

"Carry. Me." she said more slowly. She could see that the message wasn't getting through, and sighed. "My little feet are tired from walking so much. Carry your mistress!"

Before Jonathan could respond however, the sound of gunfire came to his ears. Instinctively he grabbed hold of Purple Maria and dove out of the way, just as several bullets flew past them. Jonathan let the girl down and looked back towards their assailant to see a large monster with green skin walking towards them. The creature was gigantic in stature, silent yet each powerful step it took said more than enough of its power.

"Not Frankenstein again!" Jonathan mistakenly identified the creature. He remembered how much of a pain it was to fight the Creature the first time at the Dark Academy. Now he was armed with considerably less and without a partner.

Wait…

Jonathan quickly turned to the young girl. "Maria, can you-"

"Servant boy! Attack!" she yelled, pointing towards the Creature.

Jonathan blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Use your vine attack!" she ordered.

Confused and frustrated, Jonathan abandoned the idea of having Purple Maria as an ally in battle and ran forward. He brandished the whip and lashed out at the Creature's head. His previous battle with it taught him that the head was a weak spot and would stun the monster momentarily.

The Creature did reel back in pain. However the considerable height difference kept Jonathan from consistent strikes. The Creature swiped at the hunter, but his low speed ensured that he would never hit the nimble hero. Suddenly the monster's left arm split open into two at the elbow joint, revealing a large gun barrel. A missile was quickly fired out from the Creature's elbow at the vampire hunter.

Jonathan hopped back in time to barely avoid a direct hit, but the force of the explosion sent him flying into one of the many shelves. The boy groaned in pain, unsure if the cracking sound he heard was the wooden boards behind him or his own back. He quickly jumped back to his feet when he noticed the Creature hold both of its arms outward. A spark from the bolts on its neck signaled that the enemy was ready to fire forth a large bolt of electricity. Knowing this, Jonathan barely managed to roll away as a bolt of electricity was fired at his location.

"Servant boy! Fight back!" Purple Maria screamed amidst the chaos. "Stop using that whip! Can't you use your skeleton magic or something?"

"My what?" Jonathan screamed back. He then noticed a looming shadow over him. The boy quickly threw himself down the short flight of stairs nearby to avoid being crushed under the Creature's large weight. The monster grunted again and leapt at the boy, forcing Jonathan to quickly pick himself up off the floor and move again.

"You're so useless!" Purple Maria shouted at the struggling vampire hunter. The Creature took notice and directed his arms in her direction. His hands flipped open at the wrists, revealing gun barrels built into the arms.

Purple Maria shrieked and quickly summoned a large blue tortoise shell to hide within, just as a hail of bullets showered upon her. Jonathan took the chance to strike the back of the Creature with the true might of the Vampire Killer.

The Creature groaned in response. The whip strike to the back of the head wasn't enough to finish it, and the monster was as pissed as ever. It raised its hands up to generate another bolt of electricity.

However, Purple Maria was there to intercept him this time. From beneath the large blue turtle shell came a tiny white kitten. Jonathan braced himself for the worst, knowingly unable to evade the coming attack. Instead however he heard the sound of a young kitten meowing. He looked to see the electricity generated from the Creature was being absorbed into the body of a young kitten that rested on top of the Creature's head.

Confused, but not wanting to let the chance slip by, Jonathan channeled the true power of the Vampire Killer through his body once again and lashed out at the Creature's head. The whip strike was finally enough to defeat the monster. The Creature's head plopped off from its shoulders and rolled a bit before finally exploding.

Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief as the Creature's decapitated body fell to the floor with a thud. He looked over to see Purple Maria with the white kitten in her arms. "Are you okay?"

"Hmph!" was her only response. The white kitten hissed at the boy as the girl petted it. "I sure picked a lousy servant boy…"

"Give me a break…" Jonathan sighed. He began to take in his surroundings again, this time without interruption. "Yeah… this looks like the City of Haze. Why… would we be here? Last time we had to fight that headless knight thing…"

As if on cue a hideous laughing echoed near the two. Jonathan and Purple Maria looked down the hall to see a large suit of armor stomping towards them. "Me and my big mouth!"

Before Purple Maria could even issue an order, Jonathan ran into battle. He brandished his whip and struck the chest plate a couple times, only to have his whip reflect off the armor harmlessly. This Dullahan had armor much more durable than the one he encountered in the original City of Haze.

"That's no good." Jonathan vocalized his thoughts as he avoided a thrust from the oversized lance. The sound of laughing came to his ears once again, above his head this time. He gazed up to see a large blue head floating around the armor, laughing as it passed. "I'll shut you up!" The boy roared as he dodged another lance thrust. Noticing the weapon was stuck into the ground, he quickly climbed atop the large suit of armor and leapt off of it, achieving just enough height to land onto the floating Dullahan's head. The sudden weight sent the two into a plummet towards the ground.

They hit the ground with a thud. Jonathan felt a twinge of pain course through his body from the landing but shook it off and kept a firm grip on the Dullahan's head. The blue head glared up at the boy and opened its mouth, releasing a purple spirit from within. The ghost chaser promptly flew into the boy, causing Jonathan a load of internal pain. It felt as though his stomach was rising up to his throat and the room suddenly became hazy. Despite this, he struggled through it and kept his position atop the head, pinning it to the ground.

It was then that the Dullahan's Armor approached. Jonathan gazed up at the suit of armor as it crouched in preparation of a jump. He recognized this attack. "Come and get it!" He taunted as he kept his ground. The Dullahan's Armor leapt up high into the air with its lance aimed down. Jonathan quickly released his grasp of the Dullahan's Head and leapt out of way, just as the giant lance came crashing down. The large blue head roared in brief pain as it was skewered through the forehead by its very own weapon. As the head dissolved away in an otherworldly blue flame, the large suit of armor fell apart into pieces.

"That was great!" Purple Maria shouted in awe. "There is hope for you yet, servant boy!"

"Thanks for your help…" Jonathan gasped as he stood up. Barely into Brauner's mansion and he was already exhausted from fighting two foes.

Suddenly intense pain coursed through the boy's body. Jonathan felt his entire body go numb as he collapsed to the floor. He was in a position to roll over onto his back and see a mysterious new assailant. A woman floated nearby dressed in fancy robes with a bright light behind her.

The Aliorumnas let out an evil chuckle as she raised her arms up in the air, chanting another spell. Try as he might, Jonathan could not muster the strength to even move. His vision was becoming considerably dark as her noticed the symbol of a lightning bolt appear over the Salem Witch.

Just before the spell could be completed though, the glyph was absorbed away. The Aliorumnas looked behind her in irritation to see the White Shanoa with her back exposed, stealing away all the power that she possessed. Before she could retaliate against the new woman however, a large green dragon swooped in.

Purple Maria's dragon made quick work of the Aliorumnas as she rushed to Jonathan's side. White Shanoa completed her glyph absorption and quickly did the same.

"Servant boy! Are you okay?" Purple Maria called out to him. She noticed that he was unresponsive and starring blankly up at the ceiling with glazed over eyes that foretold of near-death.

As Purple Maria began to panic, White Shanoa quickly knelt down beside him and reached into her traveling bag. She produced a large blue potion from within and gently rested the boy's head on her lap. "Drink this." she told him softly as she opened the bottle and placed it near his lips. She gently tilted the bottle so that the blue contents poured into Jonathan's mouth and down his throat.

In a matter of seconds Jonathan felt his strength return to him in tenfold. The color of his eyes returned and the exhaustion left. The boy sat up quickly, processing what just happened. "I'm alive?"

"I gave you one of my super potions." White Shanoa explained as she stood up. After helping Jonathan to his feet, she pulled him in for a soft hug. "It is good to see you again."

Before Jonathan could even react, Purple Maria tore the two apart and stood between them. "Hey! Who gave you permission to touch my servant boy?" she screamed. The young girl stomped her foot and folded her arms in a pouting way. "And I do not remember giving you permission to give him any potion or some nonsense like that! He's only allowed to receive gifts from me!"

White Shanoa stared at the young girl awestruck, then turned to Jonathan, who had a sheepish grin. "I…. can explain?"

"I see….. So you are one of those people…" she said with an almost defeated sigh.

"Whoa now! I hope you aren't thinking what I think you're thinking!" Jonathan said in attempt to save face. "She saved my life. I'm just repaying the favor to her… and she's a bit strange."

White Shanoa again looked down at the pouting girl. "Ah… I understand. We've met before, yes? My name is Shanoa."

"Hmph! I am Maria."

"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Maria." The woman said as she took the young girl's hand and shook it.

Purple Maria brooded over this for a minute, then finally smiled up at the woman. "I like you, Shanoa. You're much nicer to me than the servant boy over there."

"Why doesn't anybody in this world call me by my real name?" Jonathan briefly wondered. He noticed the two girls looking at him and blinked. "What?"

"You weren't nice to Maria?" White Shanoa asked.

"I've been nice! I've been fighting on her behalf!"

"You wouldn't carry me!" Purple Maria said. Jonathan scratched his head, hoping that he had sidestepped that whole idea. "See? I'm tired!"

"I'll carry you." White Shanoa offered as she held her arms out. Purple Maria squealed with delight as she leapt into the woman's arms and was lifted up.

Jonathan rolled his eyes as the two bonded in a sisterly manner. "Uhh hey Shanoa… have you seen the others by chance?"

She shook her head. "Not since we got off the train. We searched for you briefly outside but couldn't find you. We figured you already went inside the mansion so we followed. Afterwards we slowly got separated."

"Separated, huh?" Jonathan reached into his coat pocket to pull out his walkie talkie radio, but he couldn't get it to work. It was likely that jumping into the lake ruined it. "Well I hope the others are okay."

"I'm sure your friends are fine," Purple Maria interjected. "Can we just go back to finding Brauner already?"

"Right. Shanoa, stick with us. I'm sure we'll run into the others eventually." Jonathan said as he took lead. The group traveled through similar looking rooms, up flights of stairs and down long hallways. They ran into several enemies: Skeletons, Axe Armors, Imps, and more Aliorumnas. White Shanoa easily dispatched the foes with a fulgur spell before Jonathan even had a chance to react.

* * *

Eventually the group came upon a large dinning room, complete with a full course dinner to boot. Jonathan had to do a double take when he first entered. The room seemed to be an exact replica of the dinning room where he fought the Sisters. Even the turkey leg, which had a large bite taken out of it, was just where he had left it.

"Well this is weird…" He thought aloud.

"I wonder if he was expecting me?" Purple Maria eyed the food on the table. "It is certainly appropriate for one so important such as myself."

Jonathan blinked and turned a suspicious eye over towards the small girl. "Aren't you a vampire? Don't you just drink blood?"

"Of course we do! I just mean… uhh, that presenting a large meal is… a sign of respect!" The girl quickly explained.

White Shanoa observed a particular opening in the roof of the room. A long tower was unusually connected to the dinning room. She eyed the special magnet points placed inside. "I believe we can go up from here."

"Up? Really?" Jonathan gazed up at the opening. "How? You don't have a transformation spell or anything, do you?" The boy disliked the idea of being transformed yet again into an animal. An owl wasn't too bad, but a toad was horrible. There was that odd hunger for flies that wouldn't go away, even after reverting to a human.

"I can use my Magnes ability to lift us up. Do you not remember?"

Jonathan vaguely remembered being saved by White Shanoa after falling off the train during the intense storm. "Oh… right. But I see another path over there," he pointed towards another hallway at the end of the room. "Maybe we should split up?"

"Are you sure that we should? We may only become more separated from each other."

"Well… let's try and meet back here in this room after a few minutes? If one of us finds a lead, we'll follow through with it as a group."

"Very well. Before we depart, I would like to give you something special." White Shanoa said as she let Purple Maria down for a minute. She reached into her small carrying bag and removed two items; A cross and the bible. Jonathan recognized them immediately. "These are my most sacred gifts. I will now trust you with them. Let god watch over you in my absence."

"Um, sure, thanks. I'll use them well." Jonathan assured her. He hooked the cross subweapon through the loop in his belt and placed the bible inside one of the inner pockets of his coat. It was nice to have subweapons to rely on in battle again, especially some of the more powerful ones.

"Boooooring! Hey, hey Shanoa! Let's get going already!" Purple Maria impatiently said. The woman nodded and scooped the younger girl back into her arms and approached the center of the room. Within seconds a strange glow emanated from her back, and they were slung skyward. Purple Maria's sudden shrieks echoed through the tower.

Jonathan sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Alone again. Well… might as well grab a bite to eat while I'm here."

In truth the boy was starving. Rather than taking a grape or two to snack on as he traveled, Jonathan made himself comfortable at the head of the table and decided to finish what he started back in the previous version of the room: the turkey. At some point between the bowl of Jell-o and the pumpkin pie did he consider the possibility of the food being a trap for unwanted guests. He could be digesting poisoned food at this very minute!

With this in mind, and not wanting to overstuff himself on the job, Jonathan reluctantly stood up from the table. If the Super Potion made him feel great, then finally curbing his hunger pains made him feel perfect. He felt like he could even take on Dracula at this point!

Suddenly Jonathan felt the back of his tailcoat get sucked up into a strange device. Jonathan curiously looked behind him to see an angry Persephone Maid, armed with a vacuum, sucking up his coat.

"Hey look… I'm in a good mood. If you turn that thing off now and run away, I won't chase you." Jonathan said with a genuine smile.

The Persephone Maid didn't heed his warning. She quickly dropped the vacuum and delivered a swift karate chop towards the boy's neck. Jonathan's reflexes were too good for her, however, as he easily had a grip on her wrist and used the motion of her own attack to throw her down to the floor.

"Told you to run." Jonathan said as he cracked his knuckles. He heard the sounds of another vacuum cleaner approaching from behind and readied himself for another attack.

Turning around to glance at the new visitor however, he saw a familiar Red Soma. The older boy was armed with his own grotesque skull shaped vacuum, larger and more sinister looking than Persephone's. It was being used to suck up the coins that he came across. Hoisted over his shoulder was a large sack that seemed to be stuffed with various valuables.

"Err… Soma?"

"Hey Noob, check out mah sweet treasure keeper… thing." He said as he pointed towards his vacuum.

Jonathan of course didn't hear over the roar it made. "What?"

Red Soma grumbled and shut the thing off. "I managed to steal one of these things from those maids. I've been using it to suck up money… among other things."

"Oh. Hey by the way… aren't you surprised to see me?" Jonathan questioned. Red Soma shook his head. "I'm alive! Didn't you guys wonder where I was?"

"Not really." Red Soma answered.

Jonathan winced slightly at the response. "Oh… well, uh, hey let's look for the others! We should search down in this direction-"

"Yeah right! This mansion is full of valuable shit I can take! If you wanna be a goody two shoes, you go right ahead. I'm gonna search for more stuff." with that said, Red Soma started his vacuum back up and proceeded down the path that Jonathan and company had originally came from.

Jonathan watched the boy leave, unsurprised that he couldn't enlist his help. After making sure the earlier Persephone was still knocked out of commission, he finally set down the path he originally intended to travel.

Eventually the City of Haze-ish interior began to messily transition into that of a castle area. The wooden floor became hard with marble and the illumination of lamps quickly changed into the warm glow of candles.

"That's weird… what's this now?" Jonathan wondered as he stepped into the recreation of the Master's Keep. After traversing through a long candlelit hallway, he came upon a large room. Various platforms of black marble held ominous looking coffins. On the ground were various statues of women, broken into pieces in varying areas. Two larger statues of angels, sinister in design, took up most of the room.

"I'll never understand these peoples' taste in decorating." Jonathan commented as he observed the designs of a black bird and some writing in a language he wasn't familiar with.

He started with checking every coffin in the room for vampires. The boy decided it was safe to open them, as the room had several large windows in it. It was still cloudy outside, but there was enough sunlight to illuminate the room without the need for candles.

Jonathan counted his blessings that he did not find vampires or mummies inside the coffins. He also cursed his misfortunate when instead he saw decaying corpses. The sight and stench almost made his dinner come back up to his throat.

It wasn't until Jonathan started climbing the platforms to a higher exit that he heard weeping. Deciding that it was worth investigating, he dropped back to the floor and began searching.

It was when he searched amongst the debris of statues that he gasped in surprise. What he found was a young girl dressed in familiar clothing, although the usual blue coloring of her shawl, skirt and stockings were now black. "Charlotte?"

The girl looked up from her huddled up position and asked between sobs, "Who're you?"

Jonathan was lost in shock. From both finding Charlotte, and that she had been crying. It was evidenced by her puffy eyes that she had been crying hard. The Charlotte he knew wouldn't cry, at least in front of anyone. It wasn't a very grown up thing to do.

"Stay away from me! Don't hurt me!" The Black Charlotte pled. Jonathan noticed that the girl's right eye was swollen and bruised, and that she had minor scrapes and bruises on her arms.

"Charlotte, who gave you that black eye?" Jonathan demanded. He pushed aside any thoughts he had about her strange behavior. Concern and anger took over after seeing harm done to his friend.

Black Charlotte shook her head and buried her face back into her knees. "Leave me alone."

Jonathan knelt down and placed a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. He felt uneasy when her body shook in response. "I'm not going to hurt you, Char. I'm your friend, remember?"

"Friend?" she peeked up at him. "But you look just like him…"

"I don't know what happened to you, Charlotte, but it's dangerous here." Jonathan told the girl. He wasn't sure why she was acting strange, but it was something he'd have to figure out for a later time. "Come with me, alright? I promise that I won't hurt you."

"You promise?"

"I promise." the boy swore. He was a bit frustrated that she was more difficult than usual, but she was finally coming around. He extended a hand out to help her up. "Let's go."

She stared at the hand as though it were a foreign object. Eventually though she grabbed it and was helped up to her feet. The girl picked her large teal colored tome of spells up from the floor and hugged it close to her chest.

Jonathan led her to the nearest platform and began heading back towards the top. "Why the hell do most of these rooms require jumping? Even the castle was like this!" As he questioned the strange room structure, he glanced back down to see Black Charlotte was taking a considerable amount of time to prepare herself for even the first jump up. "What's wrong?"

"I can't do it," she shook her head. "It's too much of a jump! What if I don't make it?"

"You'll make it! It only seems like it's too high!"

She was still unsure of her own abilities. With a sigh, Jonathan dropped yet again from the top floor. He placed himself back onto the first platform and extended his hand once more. "Come on, I'll grab onto you and pull you up. How does that sound?"

The girl was silent. She looked at his hand strangely again and seemed to be deep in thought. Finally she took a few steps back and made a pitifully short hop up towards Jonathan. Luckily he was able to grab onto her arm and pull her up.

"Alright… now for the next one." Jonathan stated as he easily leapt up to a higher platform. He turned and held his hand out again, waiting to catch Black Charlotte as she followed.

This trend continued for two more platforms until Jonathan noticed that the girl had huddled up again. "What's wrong?"

"Why are you wasting your time with me?" she asked with a depressed sigh.

"Charlotte, what on earth are you talking about?" Jonathan inwardly sighed. He was getting frustrated with the new attitude his friend had taken on. "Seriously, what's bugging you?"

"I just…. I just don't know why you haven't left me behind like all the others."

"The others? You mean you've run into other people too?" She nodded. "And… they left you?"

"I'm useless…. They told me that themselves…" Tears began to form around Black Charlotte's eyes again. "I'm worthless…"

Jonathan hopped back down to Black Charlotte's platform. "Don't say that, okay? Whoever said this was wrong."

She shook her head and pointed to her discarded tome of spells. Jonathan took this as a cue to look through it as though it would reveal why she was left behind.

What would normally be a tome full of spells was instead a book filled with blank pages. Jonathan flipped from left to right and back again, looking for any signs of Charlotte's classic spells. All empty.

"Well…. This is odd." Jonathan closed the book shut and carefully placed it next to the girl. Charlotte was always proud of her talents. Jonathan could only guess that being stripped of all her skill was a major blow to her pride. _'No wonder she's depressed.'_

"You see? Just leave me behind…" Black Charlotte said.

Jonathan shook his head in response. "No way. Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you? You've had me worried sick for days," he admitted. "and besides… I can't exactly leave you in this room now that I've helped you up. We're almost to the top."

"But I can't fight…" she looked up at him with tear filled eyes.

Jonathan reached into his pocket to pull out a handkerchief and handed it over to the girl. "That's fine. Just let me do all the fighting, alright?"

Black Charlotte dried her tears as he spoke his offer. "You shouldn't have to do anything extra because of me-"

"I know I don't have to do it. I **want** to do it." Jonathan interrupted her. He picked up her blank tome and placed it inside his coat next to the bible. "I'll even hold onto this heavy book for you. We'll figure out this magic spell problem later."

Black Charlotte stood up slowly and wiped her eyes once more. "Alright… may I hold onto this?" she held up the handkerchief.

Jonathan smiled and nodded. "Yeah, sure. Now let's get going, we're almost to the top!"

* * *

Jonathan cursed this mansion…. Or castle. Heck, he didn't know where he could possibly be at the moment. He and Black Charlotte traveled down one long hallway after the next, each significantly different in scenery than the last. One hallway looked to be the inside of Dracula's Castle, while another seemed to be one of the many rooms he'd ran through in the Forest of Doom, while another ran him through the City of Haze again.

Jonathan glanced back to see if the Black Charlotte was okay. The girl kept silent for the most part and followed closely behind. Although Jonathan was still concerned about her state of mind, he was glad that she hadn't broken down into crying again.

Eventually the two came upon a large room in the Dracula's Castle setting. The room had two more branching paths with dead ends; one leading to an inactive elevator and the other leading to two mysterious blank paintings. The window allowed for sunlight to shine through, illuminating what appeared to be a destroyed Dullahan.

As Jonathan got closer, he immediately sighted what seemed to be a young man. He was standing with his back towards him, almost posed in a way. His outfit was eerily familiar, with his sleeveless garb being a dark brown instead of royal blue.

As if on cue, the man turned and gave the two newcomers a confidant smile. A convenient wind blew through the window, making the man's long white headband flow with it.

"Isn't that the Whip's Memory?" Jonathan questioned towards his partner. Black Charlotte remained silent.

The Brown Richter slowly made his way over to the two. His smile slowly disappeared into a frown as he came to a halt before the duo. "I sense evil… You! You are evil!" he shouted as he easily uncoiled his own Vampire Killer from his waist.

Jonathan's eyes widened in quick recognition of an attack and hopped back. "What're you doing?"

"Silence you devil spawn!" Brown Richter yelled as he lashed his whip out. Jonathan quickly hopped back further to avoid the attack and yelled at the Black Charlotte to run. Brown Richter glanced at the woman has he ran passed her and caught sight of the damage to her body. "So you've harmed this fair maiden too?"

"What?" Jonathan screamed back in response. "No way! I would never!" he ducked to avoid another whip lashing and removed the Vampire Killer from his own belt. "This is all a misunderstanding, but if you aren't going to shut up and listen to words, than I'll just have to beat it into you!"

"Hah! Your feeble imitation is no match for the power of the Vampire Killer!" Brown Richter exclaimed.

The two whippers exchanged blows. Some attacks were dodged, some guarded, and others were unavoidable. As the two ran around the room, Black Charlotte took refuge in the remains of the Dullahan armor, unable to help in any way.

"Dammit, why do you think I'm evil?" Jonathan shouted as he struck the man's chest with a well timed attack.

Brown Richter took the attack like a champ and returned with one of his own. "Hah! You smell of evil!"

"I smell?" Jonathan questioned the response he got. Sure he hasn't bathed since he first set foot in Castlevania, but he wouldn't go as far as to call himself stinky. "Well… you smell worse!"

Brown Richter had no words. He instead reached for his belt and pulled out a pair of throwing knives. Jonathan quickly reached into his coat and pulled out the Book of Binding. He quickly used the useless tome as a makeshift shield to block two knives thrown at him. He blocked a couple more, hearing a loud thump as they pierced through the front cover.

"This'll work nicely…" Jonathan commented as he quickly removed the daggers from the book and slipped them onto his belt. "Thanks for the refill!"

"Thief!" Brown Richter charged forward with his whip armed again.

Jonathan retreated down the closest hallway as he dodged the tip of Brown Richter's whip. He knew he had to play defensively, his arsenal left him ill-prepared compared to the Whip's Memory battle. Brown Richter clearly outmatched him in terms of whip skill and subweapons.

'_At least he hasn't attacked Charlotte…' _Jonathan soundly thought as he stopped at the dead end and turned around. Brown Richter caught up and stood his ground, effectively blocking Jonathan's only path of escape.

"Hah! There's nowhere to run!" Brown Richter proudly proclaimed. He began whipping furiously at the younger boy, who did his best to avoid the attacks.

Jonathan cringed at the pain of the Vampire Killer. The various whip strikes were beginning to take their toll on his body. Jonathan carefully made his way closer, so as to get Brown Richter within range of his own whip. With careful aim, Jonathan finally returned one of his own whip lashings right onto the Belmont's forehead, making him cringe in pain.

The two whippers glared at each other and lashed out at the same time. A loud smack echoed through the room as the two Vampire Killers struck each other and became entangled to the core. Both Jonathan and Brown Richter stared blankly at each other, as they both held onto the tangled whips.

Suddenly the battle turned into a fierce tug of war. Brown Richter and Jonathan pulled with all their might, each warrior being yanked whenever the other used his strength. For a time the battle was a deadlock, but soon it became evident that Brown Richter had more strength behind him. If Jonathan didn't act fast, he'd lose the war and become disarmed.

Then, from the corner of his eye, Jonathan noticed the strange picture frames hanging on the wall. One had a spotlight shining on it from below, while the other did not. It was to be noted that both of these picture frames were blank, the art seemingly washed or drained off.

A crazy idea filled Jonathan's head. One that just might work if he was lucky. With one hand firmly grasped on the whip, he used his free hand to remove the throwing knives from his belt. With careful aim, the boy threw a single knife. Brown Richter easily avoided the blade by hopping to his left. Careful to keep his grip on the whip, Jonathan took aim yet again with another knife. Brown Richter dodged yet again to his left. With one final throw, the older man dodged the knife with another hop to his left.

"You've got terrible aim!" Brown Richter taunted.

Jonathan chose not to retort and gripped the whip with both hands. With careful planning, he had managed to position Brown Richter directly in front of the shinning picture frame. _'Now to bait him…_' The younger boy tugged on the whip lightly and feigned a lack of strength. In response, Brown Richter pulled with all of his might, thinking he had finally overpowered the younger whipper.

As he was lurched forward, Jonathan released his grasp on the whip and threw his body with the forced of the pull. He flew at an incredible speed and struck Brown Richter with a dangerous knee attack to the chest. The force of motion launched the two whippers backwards and through the empty picture frame.

In an instant, the two were gone, leaving behind the two Vampire Killers.

* * *

Red Soma paused to examine the room once more. He made sure that he had cleaned it of anything that could be considered valuable. Every chest was open, candle destroyed, and monster looted.

Before he turned heel to leave, something new caught his attention. It was a strange painting that he hadn't noticed before. It was lying in a pile of other discarded paintings, but this one called out to him.

Red Soma carefully picked up the painting. He was a man with no particular taste for art, but the borders of the frame that housed the painting were made of solid gold.

"Worth something I'spose." The boy shrugged. He stuffed the mysterious painting into his bag of goodies and continued his own journey through the mansion.

* * *

With a bright flash, Jonathan and Brown Richter were thrown out of the blank picture frame.

The younger boy rubbed the back of his head, having landed with a thump against a wooden structure. "Whoa… tingly…:"

Brown Richter was a bit more shaken from the experience. He struggled to even stand up, let alone stop his eyes from spinning.

Jonathan recovered quicker and immediately noticed his new surroundings. It was what seemed to be inside a large tent, in the middle of a large performance ring. The boy knew where he was. "I hate this place…." he cried in despair.

"My…. The whip!" Brown Richter frantically scanned the area for a sign of his weapon. He eyed the younger boy and pointed at him. "You shall not prevail!"

"Give it a break already!"

Brown Richter ran towards the boy and threw a wild punch with his right arm. Jonathan easily saw it coming and stepped to the side, avoiding the attack. _'Close combat, huh? Now you're stepping into my territory!' _he thought as he landed a hard punch across Brown Richter's cheek.

The Belmont stumbled back and then tried to jump back in with a left hook. Jonathan ducked under it and punched Brown Richter in the gut, then rose and kicked him back in one smooth motion.

He wasn't absolutely sure in how well the Belmonts could fight without the whip. The only stories told about them were of their great accomplishments with the Vampire Killer. He had assumed that in case of an emergency, they could fight with any weapon. Brown Richter certainly didn't seem to be fairing well without his whip, but Jonathan didn't want to let his chances down. Brown Richter's physique was still better than his, and he could easily overpower him if he wasn't careful.

Despite this, Jonathan felt that he now had the upper hand. His father had trained him in a variety of fighting styles, including bare handed. It was at times like this that he was thankful he inherited his mother's genetics over his father's. Having a mountain of a body wouldn't allow him to be so nimble.

Brown Richter frowned. His assault was not going in his favor. Any punches he threw or kicks he sent were avoided or guarded with ease. He wiggled a tooth in his mouth with his tongue, knocked loose from one of the many punches Jonathan delivered.

With a scream of rage, Brown Richter launched himself forward in his trademark tackle. Jonathan quickly held up his guard stance and took the attack head on. He felt himself pushed back by the sheer force of the impact. Brown Richter immediately backed off and attempted his spin kick at the stunned boy.

In response, Jonathan guarded the attack, then quickly grabbed onto the Belmont's leg with both arms. As he held him in place, Jonathan swept Brown Richter's other leg, causing the man to fall flat on his back. Before letting go of his other leg, Jonathan made sure to bash the older man's kneecap in with his elbow.

As expected, the man yelped in pain. Jonathan cringed and backed off, not enjoying the sight. "Maybe I went a little too far there…" he commented almost to himself. A leg wasn't supposed to bend that way, that was for sure.

But a Belmont was made of tougher stuff than that. Brown Richter gritted his teeth and popped his leg back into place. He removed a high potion from his pocket and downed it quickly. Within mere moments he was back on his feet.

Just then the two realized that they were surrounded. Their fight had attracted a lot of attention from the monsters nearby. Minotaur, flea men, spear knights, and killer clowns all gathered around the performance ring, idly standing by to ambush the victor of the fight.

In a unanimous decision, Brown Richter and Jonathan ended their fight. They stood back to back as the horde grew closer. "This'll be tough without the whip…"

"Hah! I'll prevail! These fiends are no match for the power of a Belmont!" Brown Richter proudly stated.

'Belmont' seemed to be the magic word, as the monsters rushed the stage at once. Both whippers pulled out their respective Cross subweapon and threw it forward. Each holy symbol pierced through a minotaur or two, causing them to erupt into flames. Jonathan deflected the predictable spear thrusts of the closest spear knight, causing the monster to lose his grip on the weapon. With a swift knee strike, he felled the beast and picked up his discarded javelin. Noticing that his cross was making a return journey, Jonathan instead chose to roll under it and throw his javelin, impaling two killer clowns into each other.

Brown Richter threw himself forward with another tackle motion. He obliterated the swarm of flea men that attempted to gank him with one attack. The man withdrew a combat knife from his belt and slid underneath a minotaur. With a rising uppercut, he delivered a lethal cut to the bull from bottom to top. As his cross was flying back, Brown Richter chose to somersault over it, throwing knives in all directions as he landed.

Several of the enemies were dead now. Both vampire hunters, now separated, glanced at each other briefly. Brown Richter quickly caught Jonathan's original cross subweapon and threw it once more, slaying a minotaur that was in mid attack lunge. Jonathan caught Brown Richter's cross and used it to deflect a pair of throwing cards from a clown. As his original cross came flying his way, Jonathan dove to catch it, then threw both cross subweapons in opposite directions, slaying several minor foes at once.

Before long, the minions were defeated. Jonathan glanced around the war-torn performance ring with a cross in each hand, checking for any signs of survivors.

All clear.

With a relaxed sigh, Jonathan pocketed his own cross and turned towards his partner, intending to return his own subweapon.

However Jonathan was met with a hard kick to the face. The boy was thrown to the ground from the force of the surprise attack. Brown Richter steadily approached the downed hunter with a smirk. "Magnificent! You are mighty indeed! But now feel my unbridled wrath!"

"We're on the same side…" Jonathan said with a painful groan. He knew he would be unable to recover in time to avoid Brown Richter's attack. All he could do was hold up his guard in desperation.

"Jason! Richard!" A foreign voice called.

Both of the young vampire hunters looked over to see the White Julius making his way toward them. He was armed with his own Vampire Killer in one hand, and a stick of cotton candy in the other.

"Julius! …You know him?" Both whippers spoke in unison.

Brown Richter backed off and helped Jonathan to his feet. "How do you know Julius?"

"We just… Met is all." Jonathan answered, rubbing his sore face. "You kick hard, you know that? Uncalled for."

"Breaking my leg was also uncalled for." The older man retorted.

"Good point." the boy then turned his attention towards the older man. "Julius, where've you been?"

"I was waiting in line." the old man answered.

"For…?" As if to answer the question, White Julius took another bite out of his cotton candy. Jonathan shook his head with a sigh. "Julius… there wouldn't be any lines in a place like this."

"Dayum!"

As Jonathan screamed in rage, Brown Richter approached the older Belmont. "How do you know… him?"

"We met on an airplane-"

"Train!"

"-Train, and fought a bunch of werewolves and ghosts. He helped me escape." The older Belmont answered to the best of his memory.

Brown Richter contemplated his story with the battle he just recently had. "I see…. So you're not with them?" he questioned towards the youngest boy.

Jonathan nodded his head. "Yes… I've been trying to tell you that for the past twenty minutes!"

"Sorry," Brown Richter shrugged. "But I take no chances with possible deceivers."

"Yeah, about that, why exactly do you think I'm evil again?"

"You radiate an evil presence…" the man answered. "I can sense when evil is nearby."

"Interesting… I didn't know Belmonts were capable of that." Jonathan figured it was an oversight on his behalf. He never knew the Belmonts in person, so he wouldn't be able to ask them if they could sense evil or not. He considered asking White Julius, but the answer would probably frustrate him.

There was a period of silence between the three men. Jonathan contemplated why or how he could have an evil presence about him. He looked over to see Brown Richter frowning, obviously struggling with the said 'evil presence' nearby.

White Julius was first to break the silence. "Now what?"

"I must retrieve my whip!" Brown Richter said.

Jonathan nodded, wanting to also return to his whip. His eyes then widened with sudden realization. "Shit! I left Charlotte back there!"

"Chocolate?" White Julius repeated what he had heard.

Jonathan reached into his coat and pulled out the large teal tome of spells. Even if it held no spells for her to use, she could still use it as a weapon. She was left defenseless and on her own. "Dammit! What was I thinking?"

"Calm down, we just have to go back the way we came." Brown Richter said. He approached the large picture frame that he was dumped out of earlier and jumped towards it. Instead of warping through it however, he slammed hard against it and fell back. "What the hey?"

The other two men came up to investigate. White Julius himself was confused. "What were you trying to do?"

"I was trying to jump back through this painting!"

"Jump through a painting? Did Blue skidoo?"

"Maybe we need to find another way out," Jonathan suggested. "I think it'd be better than trying to figure out why this thing doesn't work."

* * *

The Nation of Fools held no picture frames for the boys to jump into. Fighting through little resistance here and there revealed more exit paintings, rather than entrance paintings.

Eventually the trio happened upon a room that made another seamless transition into a Forest of Doom area. It looked to be that of a classroom, filled with chairs, desks, and a large chalkboard.

Brown Richter wasted no time charging into battle, slaying the group of helpless student witches. White Julius was nearby to catch any stragglers that attempted to escape.

Jonathan meanwhile searched the adjacent room for anything that could be useful. Inside was an untouched purple treasure chest and another empty picture frame that had a spotlight shining on it.

Hearing that the two Belmonts were nearly done, Jonathan took it upon himself to open the chest. Its contents certainly made him smile. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" he happily exclaimed, pulling out a number of shuriken. The throwing stars were numerous, but luckily Jonathan had more than enough room to fit them all onto his belt and into his coat.

"Hey! I found one!" White Julius shouted as he came into the room.

Brown Richter followed behind, eyed the empty picture frame, and immediately leapt in with no words to the others. The two whippers quickly followed.

* * *

The three now emerged in a strange tunnel. The two Belmonts took in their surroundings, trying to process what to do and where to go next. Jonathan immediately recognized it as the train tunnel he had taken earlier with Purple Maria.

"Hey cool, so that's why that picture frame was in the tunnel…" the boy recalled. He then caught sight of the ladder and motioned for the men to follow him.

After trekking through familiar areas, the three were soon back to where they originally left off. Brown Richter was pleased to see that the whips were still where he had lost it. As the Belmont untangled the two Vampire Killers, Jonathan searched around the room frantically for his lost friend. "Charlotte? Where are you?"

It wasn't usually like him to worry so much over leaving Charlotte alone, but now things were different. Her new personality had placed a lot of doubt and concern over how well she'd fare on her own.

"She's not here," Brown Richter said, tossing Jonathan's own Vampire Killer back towards him. "Save your breath."

"But….. Yeah, you're right." Jonathan sighed.

It was then that they noticed White Julius had wandered towards the other hallway. What was once a dead end now had an active lift rising from the floor to a higher room.

After watching the old man take the lift up, the two younger whippers decided to follow in pursuit.

When they stepped off in the next room, they noticed the castle surroundings slowly transition into what one would expect of a normal mansion. There were several paint streaks lined across the walls, ceiling and floor.

"This must be where the paintings end." Brown Richter affirmed with a nod.

A clueless Jonathan looked over to him. "What do you mean?"

"Could you not tell? All of those blank picture frames we found?" Seeing the still clueless expression on the boy's face, Brown Richter explained.

"Oh I see," Jonathan nodded, slowly taking it all in. "So basically the separate worlds grew too powerful with magic to be contained within their paintings and seeped out, merging with this mansion?"

"Something like that, sure."

"That's crazy. How did you find out about it?"

"I make it my business to know everything about my enemy."

The youngest boy scratched the back of his head. _'Why would you do that? You're gonna beat them up anyway.'_

Soon the group came to a dead end. There was nothing spectacular about the room save for a very large mirror that floated against the wall. Its reflection was different from what one would expect when looking into it. It revealed an artist's studio with a very large canvas. The artist inside was also the owner of the mansion and everyone's current target.

"There you are!" came a patronizing voice. Standing before the mirror was a group of familiar women. "Servant-boy, I demand an explanation!"

"Oh… hey," Jonathan casually waved in an attempt to pass it off. "How's it going?"

Purple Maria was in no mood for excuses. She walked right over to the boy and stomped down on his foot, which didn't amount to much. "I **KNEW** you would ditch me the first chance you got!"

"What're you talking about?"

Purple Maria ignored him. She stuck her tongue out at him and ran back to White Shanoa, who was also busy consoling the Black Charlotte. "You were supposed to meet us back in the dinning room. We waited, but you never appeared."

White Shanoa's words went in one ear and out the other. Jonathan nodded as if he heard, but was more focused on how she found another nun's habit to put on her head. His eyes then focused on the familiar girl in black clothes. "Charlotte! There you are!"

Jonathan ran to meet the girl, more or less pushing White Shanoa and Purple Maria aside. Black Charlotte looked up, then sighed. "Oh… you came back…"

"Of course I did! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine… I'm used to people leaving me by now." she said with another sigh.

"We found her while looking for you," White Shanoa explained. "She seemed to be in distress, so we took her with us."

"Why did you come back for me? I don't want to burden you anymore…"

"I promised you that I wouldn't leave you, didn't I? I only got separated from you because of… well, a fight!" Jonathan tried to tell her. He looked back towards Brown Richter in an attempt to get his help.

However, Brown Richter was silent. The Belmont had an uneasy twitch in his eye and his hands clenched into fists. "I sense…. A VAMPIRE!" he screamed, suddenly alarming the rest.

Before Purple Maria could even introduce herself, Brown Richter rushed past her. He leapt towards the mirror, phasing through it as though it were yet another portal. The group could see that the man was now in the reflection of the mirror, confronting the vampire artist within.

"Brauner!" Jonathan recognized the vampire in purple. He briefly turned his attention back to Black Charlotte. "Stay here where it's safe, alright? I'll be back for you."

Before she could respond, the boy leapt into the mirror. The experience of traveling through a mirror was similar to jumping through the paintings, albeit less of a tickle to the stomach.

He landed safely on the other side and found Brown Richter to be posing heroically. He was giving a speech towards the vampire with lines even Jonathan would consider cheesy and embarrassing.

The vampire, uninterested with Brown Richter's babbling, went back to his masterpiece. It wasn't until a single throwing knife struck his painting that he fully gave his attention towards the two.

It was at this time that Purple Maria and White Julius jumped through the mirror. The girl immediately ran to the front of the group, stomping on Brown Richter's foot to finally shut him up. "Brauner! I've been looking for you!"

The artist now gave his attention towards the young girl. "What is this? Why have you intruded upon my home?"

Before Purple Maria could even begin to talk, Jonathan stepped forward. "Brauner! It ends here!"

A flabbergasted Purple Maria glared daggers at the boy. "What're you doing? You're ruining my plan!"

Jonathan gripped the Vampire Killer firmly in his hand. "I promised Eric that I'd stop this bastard. I won't let him hurt anyone else!"

"Enough of this!" Brauner spoke. With a flick of the wrist, a painting of the very room the group stood in appeared. The vampire then turned his attention towards it briefly, drawing a large mark on it. "Blood Art Technique!"

The vampire hunters remained puzzled, but on their guard. Soon a mass of blood materialized and flew towards the group, leaving a trail behind it. The group scattered as the blood paint struck their previous location.

"Everyone okay?" Brown Richter called out. He observed that the room was still filled with lines of red paint, obscuring most of the room to the heroes. "Don't touch this stuff!"

Purple Maria made for the mirror, but found that the glass was completely covered with blood paint. "We're trapped!"

Jonathan, who managed to dodge closer to the vampire than the rest of the group, rushed towards the artist. A fountain of blood erupted from Brauner's hand, materializing one of his many demonic paintings. With a sinister laugh and command, two large statues of death emerged from the tiny painting. Jonathan quickly jumped out of the way as the two statues charged forward at high speeds. Brown Richter and White Julius were also fortunate to evade, but Purple Maria was caught off guard and took a hit.

Before the group could even react, Brauner painted another mark with his blood art. This time the blood created a large X in the room. Jonathan was unfortunate enough get hit directly by the art and felt himself pinned to the ground. His body was covered in blood and he felt weighed down to the ground.

"I can't move…" the boy struggled to call out.

Brauner laughed as he prepared another attack. "I'll make you my masterpiece!" he taunted, as a new painting appeared. This time a Cerberus jumped out, snarling its teeth as it landed. The dog slowly made its way towards Jonathan, moving cautiously as it approached its helpless prey.

Jonathan struggled to move even more now. "Someone help me!"

Brown Richter appeared to answer the call. He tackled the beast as hard as he could, sending it flying back into the artist. Enraged, Brauner banished the creature for knocking him over.

"Can you stand?" The Belmont asked, throwing daggers at the vampire as he did.

"This crap weighs you down or something, I can hardly move!" The boy said. He was barely able to lift his arms enough to wipe the blood from his face.

"Then stand aside! I'll handle this!" he shouted, running for Brauner with his whip ready.

"…I can't even stand." Jonathan grumbled. He then got the idea to wiggle his arms toward his body. Within moments he had them slipped into the insides of his coat, which allowed him to throw it off his body.

It did the trick. He was still weighted by the blood on his lower body, but it was enough to let him move again. Jonathan quickly scavenged his subweapons from the discarded coat and moved to assist Brown Richter.

Brauner retreated to a corner of the room and used more of his Blood Art Technique. Hearing the words, Jonathan readied himself to avoid any wave of blood headed his way. He was fortunate enough to do so this time, but noticed the room was nearly filled with the art. "Where the hell are Julius and Maria?"

"Look out!" Brown Richter called. Jonathan instinctively rolled away from the closest sound he heard, which turned out to be the vampire making a desperate swing at his head.

The two whippers began striking at the vampire with their weapons. Brauner recoiled from the pain and quickly retreated into his large portrait. The portrait began to spin quickly and bowled through the two vampire hunters. The two men quickly recovered and searched for a sign of the vampire. They found the large portrait flying circles near the ceiling. Brauner swooped in and attempted to knock the two men over again. Brown Richter and Jonathan were both able to dodge, although just barely. The Brauner Portrait moved erratically around the room, and the blood art was leaving them with little breathing room.

Suddenly a loud screech filled the air. A vermillion red bird flew through the portrait, instantly setting it on fire. Brauner quickly landed and retreated from his picture frame. However, before he could act, the vampire was splashed with holy water. The artist roared from the searing pain and stumbled away. Jonathan noticed the blood art filling the room was slowly being washed away. White Julius uncorked another vial of holy water and splashed it onto the blood, instantly dissolving the tainted art. Purple Maria was right behind him with a red bird resting on her shoulder.

Brauner was nearly defeated. The artist formed another painting with his blood and sent forth a new foe. Several large heads, medusa-like in nature, flew forth. Jonathan quickly pulled out the bible subweapon and threw it. The holy book quickly took over and spun around the room, leaving a trail of pages as it did. The stone heads were knocked away and quickly cleared out.

Brown Richter and White Julius rushed at the vampire. They took turns lashing with the Vampire Killers, striking the artist in the face and chest. Brauner's last attempt at blood art was met with failure as two vials of holy water splashed onto his face. The vampire screamed in pain as he collapsed to the floor in agony.

Brown Richter smirked and turned his back to the defeated foe. "Die now, and leave this world!"

Purple Maria joined the Belmonts and observed the slain vampire. "Guess I didn't need you after all! Sorry gramps!" she taunted. The three slowly made their way back to the giant mirror and began to clean it off with holy water.

Jonathan stood at the other end of the room. Brauner was finally defeated, the mission he had sought to accomplish for what felt like years to him. His thoughts went to the fallen Eric for a moment, wondering when he'd be able to return to his world and tell him of the good news.

Brauner's eyes shot open. The vampire slowly rose to his feet and glared at the trio of vampire hunters at the mirror. He saw that they were distracted, and took this chance. With one final fountain of blood, Brauner summoned his most dangerous painting. "This is ART!"

From the painting sprung forth a large green monster. The monster was grotesque, venomous and had several sharp blades along its body. The beast roared as it flew towards the alarm trio, blades spinning at dangerous speeds. The three vampire hunters were trapped, unable to advance past the venom pinwheel of death that slowly advanced upon them.

Brauner laughed as he saw the helpless vampire hunters by the mirror. In mere minutes they'd be sliced into ribbons.

"Hey, did you forget about me?" a voice suddenly spoke. Brauner turned to see Jonathan, just as he was struck by his Vampire Killer. The whip had unleashed its full potential with its strike, setting the cursed vampire alit with holy flames. Brauner screamed as he was reduced to ashes in seconds.

Because of the artist's death, the venom pinwheel faded away. The Belmonts let out a sigh of relief, as Purple Maria fainted from shock. As they finally finished cleaning the mirror off, Jonathan observed the golden treasure chest appear near him. He curiously pried open the lid, only to laugh at the irony of what it contained. "Holy water…"

He turned back towards the mirror to see White Shanoa making his way over to him. _'She must've been worried about me._' the boy thought shamelessly. "Don't worry about me-"

The woman cut him off with a hard slap to the face. "What have you done?"

Jonathan rubbed his face, feeling tears sting his eyes. "What do you mean…?"

"Look at what you have done!" she shouted, pointing at the used bible subweapon. "The pages are scattered all over the place! Is this how you treat such sacred items?"

"Well….. Yes?" Jonathan was met with another slap.

"I want you to pick all of the pages up." the woman's voice was cold. Without even sparing him another look, she turned heel and left through the mirror, presumably with the others.

Jonathan spent a minute to rub his face. Compared to the beating Brown Richter gave him earlier in the day, White Shanoa's slaps really hurt. "Sheesh… what's her problem? The Belmonts have always used the bible like that."

With a grumble, he started picking the pages up. The pages were numerous and scattered all throughout the room, and the blood art that still coated his clothes made it hard for him to move.

"Here," a girl's voice spoke. "let me help you."

Jonathan looked up to see Black Charlotte on her knees, gathering together the pages of the bible from her end of the room. "Are you sure?"

"I want to help somehow," she spoke while straightening the pages in her hands. "I'm not good for much, but I should help you out however I can."

"It's okay Charlotte, don't worry about me. You don't have to help-"

"No…" she stopped him. "I know I don't have to do this, but I **want** to do this."

Those same words brought a smile to the boy's face. "Thanks for the help, Charlotte."

* * *

"I see…" Jonathan mulled over what White Shanoa was telling him. "So you couldn't find the others?"

"After Brauner was slain, we combed the mansion one last time. We couldn't even find one trace of them." the woman explained.

"Hammer hasn't seen them either." White Julius nodded towards the large tent.

The sun had already set by the time the vampire hunters left the mansion. They decided to set up camp near the lake and go over events.

"Wait, Hammer is here?" Jonathan finally noticed the tent. "Since when?"

"He's always been here," Red Soma said. "He was searching that destroyed train for anything worth salvaging."

"Wha….. How did he even get here? I don't remember him on the train…" Jonathan wondered. He remembered how the train constantly sped up during the werewolf incident.

"Oh, he ran after us." Red Soma casually answered.

"He ran? But… never mind." Jonathan sighed. He turned his attention over to Purple Maria. "By the way Maria, I forgot to ask… how did you catch up to us so fast?"

"I flew."

"You… Flew?" The boy repeated.

"Yes, I flew. I'm a vampire, remember?" the girl said unconvincingly again.

"Right… wait, if you flew then why were you saying your feet were tired?"

Red Soma stood up and dragged Jonathan away from the campfire. "Yeah, yeah, there's more important stuff to be worrying about than some brat."

Jonathan struggled against his grasp for a bit before following him into Hammer's tent. Unsurprisingly or surprisingly, the man was no where to be found. "Where is that guy?"

"Don't worry about him! ….So," Red Soma leaned in with a smile on his face. "I hear you received 'sacred gifts' from Shanoa?"

Jonathan innocently nodded. "Yeah, I did. Why?"

"Haha! I knew you had it in you! How big were they?" The older boy asked.

"Well… they're as big as you would expect of them, I guess?" Jonathan thought back to the cross and bible he had used back in the castle of his world.

Red Soma peeked back out the tent at the campfire, eyeing White Shanoa. "Niiiiice, you're right, they do look big."

"Oh! But uhh… if I keep using them, they'll get bigger!" Jonathan recalled subweapon mastery. He hadn't perfected it with every subweapon, but he was close.

"Keep playing with them? Wow, you animal!"

"Umm… thanks, I guess." Jonathan shrugged, not knowing what he was talking about. He then remembered the shuriken he had found within the mansion. "Oh, but I recently found my favorite again, so I might just stick with those for a while."

"Your…. Favorite?" Red Soma questioned. He curiously glanced back outside of the tent, spying on the Black Charlotte by the campfire. "Uhh…. How big are they?"

"They're small now, but soon they'll get much bigger! I actually can't wait for it!"

Red Soma stared at the girl again, then returned his attention to the boy. "Right, that reminds me… what's the deal with you two?"

"What do you mean?"

"That new girl… she keeps looking at you and stuff like that. Is she your girlfriend?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know this too!" Purple Maria spoke, surprising the two.

"What the-who the hell told you to follow us?"

"I don't remember giving you permission to run off with my servant boy." The girl stuck her tongue at Red Soma. "Now, answer the question! Who is this girl?"

"Charlotte? She's my friend."

Red Soma was unconvinced. "Reeeeeally? Not a girlfriend?"

"Girlfriend? No way!" the boy shook those ideas out of his head. "She's like a sister to me, I look out for her."

"Right, uh huh, and I suppose it's normal for you to scream your sister's name in your sleep?"

Jonathan's cheeks flushed. "I-I don't do that! Do I?"

"I dunno. I'm just bullshittin you." Red Soma shrugged. He noticed that Purple Maria was eyeing a mysterious painting that lay on Hammer's desk. "What's wrong with you?"

"Where did you find this?" The girl asked, pointing towards the painting.

The two boys approached the painting with the girl. It was a large painting of a desert. "In the mansion. I figured it was valuable so I took it. Hammer gave me a lot of gold for it too."

"It gives me a funny feeling inside," Purple Maria said. "I can't really explain it."

"Yeah… now that you mention it, it kinda does."

Jonathan scratched the back of his head. "I've seen this painting before, I think…."

Suddenly there was a bright glow from the painting. The three stepped back, blinded by the light. In the next moment they were gone, pulled into the world of the Sandy Grave.

**End of Chapter 4**

* * *

I wasn't too pleased with how this chapter cmae out. I guess it is partly due to the extreme writer's block I had over two months. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed.

Chapter 3 Trivia:

_Question 1: Jonathan's look changes in this chapter. Was this one of his alternate color options?_

**Answer 1: **Yes. In HD, you are presented with 7 color options after choosing your character. Jonathan's black coat is the first alternate color.

_Question 2: Several enemies appear to attack our heroes. What enemies from Harmony of Despair specifically appear in this chapter?_

**Answer 2:** Ghost and Specter

_Question 3: Despite being separated, Jonathan, White Shanoa, and White Julius could hear Blue Yoko. What is this a nod to?_

**Answer 3:** Yoko's quotes (More specifically her spells) being heard throughout the entire map. It didn't matter how far away you got from her, she'll still scream into your ear.

_Question 4: What level was Jonathan's new subweapon?_

**Answer 4: **Level 9

_Question 5: Despite never being truly utilized, Harmony of Despair features a weapon designed specifically for the boss. What is this weapon called?_

**Answer 5:** The Werebane. Oddly enough, there are no were enemies in Harmony of Despair. It was brought to my attention that the Silver Gun is another possibility. Either answer is correct.

Congratulations to those who got them right. Points are accumulating~

**~Chapter 4 Trivia~**

**Question 1:** What soul was Red Soma using in this chapter, and what level range was it?

**Question 2:** Black Charlotte's Book of Binding contained no spells. Is this possible at anypoint in the game?

**Question 3:** Brauner summoned a new attack in this chapter. What was it?

**Question 4:** What were White Shanoa's sacred gifts?

**Bonus:** What was Purple Maria referring to when she ordered Jonathan to use weird attacks?

Good luck to all who participate. Thank you for reading, and I hope everyone enjoys the PSN release of Harmony of Despair!


End file.
